Photo Staff Accused Of Taking Hidden Photos Of aespa’s Winter Takes Legal Actions

Yesterday, a fan viewing a behind-the-scenes video of an aespa photoshoot that was uploaded on the 10th of March accused a photoshoot staff that was walking behind the K-pop girl group that he had his phone angled in a weird way, pointing towards the girls and taking illicit photos.

Fans of aespa were quick to assume that the photographer was taking hidden photos of SM Entertainment's aespa. This prompted more fans to bombard aespa's agency with emails and messages to notify them of what they believe was a malicious act.

Furthermore, a post on Twitter alluring to the incident has since been deleted.

To add to the situation, another fan called SM Entertainment to report the alleged incident. Right after, the fan shared that they were told that their report would be sent directly to the person in charge for direct review.

The fan who called also told other MYs, the fandom name of aespa, to also contact the customer center of SME with the same message they gave to ensure that SM Entertainment responded faster.

Almost immediately, SM Entertainment released an official statement to the scandal with regards to aespa's Winter. This was done swiftly to clear the name of the photographer and put aespa's fans at ease.

Via an SM Entertainment representative, SM Entertainment confirmed that the alleged issue was all a misunderstanding. Meaning that no hidden and malicious photograph was taken.

The statement of the agency is as follows:

"We have confirmed that the photographer in charge of the shoot, who appeared in the video in question, did not do what he was misunderstood of. Winter, of course, enjoyed the photoshoot back then, and there were no incidents that were unpleasant nor were there any situations that could be misunderstood."

One would assume that everything would be taken care of now, but some fans still keep spreading false accusations and malicious comments to the photographer.

To combat this, the photographer revealed an email address on his Instagram account. He asked his followers to send screenshots of spiteful comments and wrong information that was still directed towards him prior to the issue with aespa. He shared that he will take legal actions for defamation on his part.