Photo Finish: Indian American Surgeon Sues Well-Known Photographer for Last-Minute Demands
- Dr. Amit Patel is seeking to claim the $76,000 he allegedly paid Clane Gessel to shoot his daughter’s wedding in Turkey in May 2022.
An Indian American vascular surgeon in New Jersey is suing a well-known New York City-based photographer for making last-minute demands before his daughter’s dream wedding last year. Dr. Amit Patel is seeking to claim the $76,000 he allegedly paid Clane Gessel to shoot Anisha Patel’s wedding to Arjun Mehta in Turkey in May 2022.
The father of the bride told The New York Post that it was the first wedding for the family “in a long time.” He estimated the total cost of the four-day event to be a good six-figure number.” It took “a year planning and included 250 guests, 13 custom outfits for the bride,” the Post reported. Festivities included “saxophonists playing music on the beach, a Turkish-themed night that mimicked a local bazaar, as well as traditional music, decor and dancers, various custom-made necklaces for the bride, and fireworks,” the report added.
However, five days before the wedding, Gessel emailed Patel asking to change the accommodation for his staff, news reports said, citing the lawsuit. He had previously agreed that he and his team would stay at the Doubletree by Hilton, instead of the luxury five-star Mandarin Hotel, the venue of the wedding,” the lawsuit says, according to reports. But on May 21, Gessel demanded that they be accommodated at the Mandarin Hotel Bodrum, at the expense of Patel, the lawsuit alleges. In an email, Gessel stated his position was “non-negotiable,” and that he would decide “who is shooting what and when,” the lawsuit claims.
Patel told the Daily Mail that one of the reasons for taking legal action is to make sure that ”no other bride or family has to go through this. I hope that nobody ever hires him again.”
Patel says in the lawsuit that Gessel and his namesake studio agreed in writing that he would be the “main photographer” at each of the gathering’s multiple events. He then advised Patel that he would need an email or a contract to sign before he and his team got on the plane, the lawsuit claims, per the Post.
Patel allegedly received Gessel’s email while he was waiting to board a plane to Turkey for the wedding. He refused to agree to the demands and found a replacement photographer to take photos and videos of his daughter’s wedding – which was featured by Vogue magazine.
The lawsuit was filed in a Manhattan federal court in December, seven months after the wedding. Patel told The Daily Mail that he sent several letters through his counsel to Gessel to demand the return of the money, but no transfer has been made. In court documents, Patel calls Gessel’s failure to photograph the event a “blatant anticipatory breach of the Service Agreement.”
Patel told the Daily Mail that one of the reasons for taking legal action is to make sure that ”no other bride or family has to go through this. I hope that nobody ever hires him again.”
Meanwhile, Patel did wonder how the photos would have looked “if we had a full crew like we were supposed to.” He admitted that Gissele “does shoot beautiful photographs and that is the reason that we wanted him to do the photos.” But his unprofessionalism and last-minute demands “shocked” him, Patel told the British daily.
“We had previously discussed the accommodation, the DoubleTree was further away and all-inclusive, so we tried to say we would have food at the wedding for his team,” he said. “But he never got back to us until 11 pm when he knew we were traveling to Turkey for the wedding.”