Website: http://amyrushbrookphoto.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyrushbrookphoto/

THIS IS NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER WHO HAS STOLEN IMAGES

This is another entry into the “Photo Shyster” division as she has allegedly been not delivering images to clients and not delivering goods for workshops that have been purchased.

Since there are many prongs to this story I’m going to attempt to separate them as best I can.

This is a VERY long read without photos.  However, I had to be wordy to properly cover the story in full.  Scroll to the bottom if you are a victim and want to know what you can/should be doing to protect yourself going forward.

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Update 3/1/2020:

I’ve been meaning to update this post since more has been brought to light.  Updated to add photos, more details etc. since it was claimed I didn’t have any proof this happened.

While I do have the multiple conversations that have taken place privately with Amy’s victims to back up my words I am not posting anything that hasn’t been posted publicly, especially since someone has begun to threaten me over this post.

I am willing take the fall for this and don’t want anything else to happen to the victims who were brave enough to come forward.  Please know I wouldn’t go forth with this post without ample proof this is what is taking place.

Amy Rushbrook is a photographer based in Melbourne, Australia that is a lifestyle family photographer that has gone by Amy Rushbrook Photography and Life: Unmade who also sells workshops and mentoring to photographers called “Life: Unmade The Workshop” and “Home.ly”

Recently it was brought to light on a fairly large Facebook Group that Amy Rushbrook has been taking money from photographers and clients but not delivering the products promised.  Once one person made the post there was a flood of comments detailing how Amy failed them or someone they knew in the past year or so.

 

Life: Unmade The Workshop is what we are going to dig into first.

She offers a variety of options from 1:1 mentorship, 1:3 mentorship, website/portfolio review, and an online q&a.  These ran from $330 – $1100 AUD.   She also offers in person workshops which take place over 2 days and are $1800.  Finally, there is also an option for the e-workshop for $490 which is an online version of her in person workshop with access to the Facebook Group/mentoring by Amy.

With all of her mentoring offerings, you were granted access to a private Facebook group that Amy ran where she said she’d regularly hold q&a’s, weekly assignments that she would critique and be an open book available to her students.  According to quit a few photographers, the online group was what sold them on the online courses they purchased.

It is unclear if Amy was ever active in the group but in mid-2018 allegedly the group was dead and Amy was not active on it.  The only posts were from fellow students wondering where Amy was but she never appeared.  Everyone had been attempting to get in touch with Amy but they were met with excuses and not answers.  Eventually Amy posted a video promising she would be back soon and that she would do better in the future.

 

All is silent from Amy again until she started to promote her new workshop “Home.ly” which was scheduled to start online on 2/1/2020 and would kick off with an in person workshop on February 21-23.  She promises that all old students from the previous “Life: Unmade” workshop would be able to switch over to the new workshop and group that went along with it.

Unfortunately Amy again goes silent, finally reappearing the day before the online workshop was to begin by sending out a questionnaire about what the students were hoping to get from the class after there were more complaints about Amy’s silence.

The date of the new online workshop passes and the old students begin to ask Amy what is going on.  She promises she’s almost ready to launch and is just adding the last of the 50 people from the Life: Unmade group to the new platform.  Eventually during a group chat outside of the Facebook group, the students realize that no one had been added to the new platform.

As of 2/13/20 (the day this post initially went live), no one has access to the new Home.ly workshop platform.  Since this post she has claimed to have shuttered her workshop business.

There are also issues with the in person workshops she ran for Life:Unmade.  She told anyone attending that there was no need to take notes as they would have access to the e-course on the same topic.  It’s been a year and many say they still have never been given access to that course.  From the stories I’ve been told and have read, this has been an ongoing issue with not delivering everything promised for in person workshops for some time.

Those students that have paid in full are starting to have their doubts that Amy will show up at all given the news that has broken about all of her past transgressions.

Someone called the home where the February event was to take place and spoke to the owner wanting to find out if it was even booked.  The owner cancelled the booking as Amy booked the workshop as a ‘girls weekend’ instead of being honest about it being an event which is explicitly stated to be against the rules of use of the private home.  Amy was still taking signups for the workshop despite this.

 

From what I have been told the Point Lonsdale, Victoria workshop that was scheduled on 2/21 – 2/23 2020 did not take place.

She has two more upcoming workshops – one in Mornington Peninsula, Victoria on March 4-6 and another in Byron Bay, NSW on April 10-12.  These workshops are $1800 a person and include two nights accommodation, the instructions from Amy, the e-workshop, a photoshoot, a workbook, and morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

 

The day after this post went live Amy posted on 2/14/2020 in an instagram story claiming that she was shutting down her workshops.  She also claimed that anyone that had ever signed up with her workshops, online or in person, would receive two PDFs of her courses within the next week.

Those have not been delivered as of 3/1/2020.

A few people have been able to get partial refunds with filing Paypal disputes.

Now the next prong of this mess… Amy was a part of The Family Narrative, which is a retreat for family photographers.   Ideally Amy was supposed to run the conference in Australia with guidance from the team in the US.  The first year of the conference in Australia in 2018 the organizers had to have a heavy hand in it as Amy was pretty flaky but in the end she pulled it off and the workshop went well.

Running on the high of a well-run and received conference, the organizers agreed to do it again in 2019.  They let her take over the planning and that’s when it all went to hell.  Most of their communications went unanswered and when they were answered Amy had plenty of excuses that left the organizers feeling sorry for her and wanting to give her another chance because they aren’t heartless.

The conference went off in July 2019 by luck and sheer force of will of the organizers.  Amy did show up, which all were doubtful about, and when they left they were exhausted but happy that in the end, yet again, Amy pulled it off.  Or so they thought.

Once the team from TFN returned to the states they were saddened to hear that unbeknownst to them (as Amy handled the financial end of TFN Australia) many people were not paid.  The hotel was shorted by 5 figures, many speakers were not paid in full, and other vendors were left with unpaid balances.  At this time, many of those people still have not been paid.

Amy is allegedly claiming that she was left with a hefty tax bill from 2018’s conference (which TFN states barely made a profit) and she is the one who was screwed over by TFN not the other way around.  Last July she claimed she was going to be filing bankruptcy for the bills she was left with.  However, according to TFN, it’s very easy to see what the profits should have been from the 2019 conference (fee for the conference x the amount of students who attended) and there’s a hefty sum that should have been available to pay the bills due.

Finally, there is also allegedly a significant amount of photography clients that have been left hanging. Going back as far as May 2019 (and possibly earlier) there are clients who are still waiting for images from sessions photographed by Amy.

 

While Amy has shut down Facebook and her Google Page to get rid of the negative reviews clients have left, some have posted on her blog, as seen below.

There are also further clients who are due refunds after Amy allegedly cancelled last minute without rescheduling.  There are even more clients who paid in full but have not yet been able to allegedly get Amy to schedule their sessions.

Some of these sessions that have yet to be scheduled are from a “bushfire” sale that Amy ran in January promising $50 from any session would go towards to the Australian Red Cross.  The payment for these sessions was due in full at the time of booking. It is unclear if those donations were made.

There are a few clients who have got refunds but only after filing with VCAT or Paypal.  She is now only taking payments via direct deposit.

On 2/12/2020 Amy changed her website and Instagram to state she was no longer taking clients but on 2/13/2020 it was back to taking on bookings and her prices had been lowered.  Her “For Photographers” link has been removed from her website but the website is still active.

She’s deleted her Google page and Facebook Page after she allegedly started getting negative reviews.

On February 24th Amy posted to Instagram stating she will be also quitting photography in June.

She also followed this up with an email to those that she owed money to stating her business had gone into administration and she was declaring bankruptcy.  However, according to the government website she is still registered and I’m told when you go into administration the status changes to reflect this.

So… what can you do? 

If you are a victim of Amy’s first of all I AM SO SORRY.  This is unacceptable and I am sorry this deception was able to continue for so long.

Before you do ANYTHING else, document, document, document.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Amy continues to remove everything she can online to protect herself.

Save all correspondence including emails, Facebook messages/comments, Instagram conversations and payment receipts.  If she deletes her accounts you may lose any private conversations you had with Amy that further prove your case against her.  I recommend making PDFs of everything (go to print and change the printer to Save as PDF on most computers) but at the bare minimum screenshot.

Take all of your documents and print everything out along with making a folder where you place everything (screenshots, email receipts, bank statements etc.).  Keep this all together and add to it.  If you are connected with other victims it may be wise to share a Dropbox folder with each other so if you are missing something someone else may have it for you.

I have cached most of her websites via the Wayback Machine in case she deletes or changes anything but I highly recommend that you make your own PDF of the page highlighting the service your purchased.

If you paid with a credit card contact them immediately to see if there is a possibility of a chargeback.  Even if the grace period for it has passed, it’s worth checking into to see if it is an option.  In other cases I’ve worked on, clients have had luck with this even after the period is technically over.

If you paid with PayPal file a dispute immediately.  Regardless if Amy has the money in her account or not, PayPal will refund you so long as you didn’t send her the money as “Friends and Family.”  If you did, still contact PayPal as sometimes they do make exceptions.  It’s worth it even if their answer is no.

If you paid via direct deposit contact your bank and see if there is any recourse.  Some banks will allow you to recall the funds but it’s often a short period of time.

Some have contacted the ACCC, while they may not be able to help they may be able to point you in the direction where you need to go.

Amy has told people she is filing for bankruptcy (she never went through with it apparently back in July 2019) and anyone with claims against her need to file via the AFSA website.   While I highly recommend pursuing other avenues first in case she doesn’t go through with the bankruptcy, it is an option if nothing else pans out.

Finally, if you are a victim and want to be connected with other victims, please feel free to contact me and I will connect you with them.