Complaint Review: April D. Bennett and Souls Image Photography www.soulsimage.com

I was referred to April D. Bennett and Souls Image Photography www.soulsimage.com a few months ago by a mutual friend in Scottsdale, Arizona. That proved to be a colossal mistake.    My story is pretty simple, I just wanted some candid head shots for work and some family photos.  The first problem was reaching her.  For an independent worker she just doesn’t make it easy to reach her and schedule an appointment.  Once that hurdle was passed, the meeting was even more epic. 

She shows up as the most aloof photographer that ever was, and constantly reminds you that she used to model in Milan - as if she’s still trying to earn her letter in high school. She also has to remind you that she once worked with/lived with Charlize Theron.  We will venture to guess that Charlize has no idea who she is.  She fancies herself as an Annie Leibowitz meets Ansel Adams type photographer;  of course if both Adams and Leibowitz packed their lips with collagen; and if both Adams and Leibowitz kept saying they knew Picasso and had drinks with Hemingway.   

The shoot itself was weird.  She felt the need to tell us about her kids, a boy and a girl from two separate baby daddies. Naturally both happen to be awful fathers and blames them for everything bad in her life from her monthly cycle, to the problems in the middle east. One can’t imagine a life with such a narcissistic person and we imagined they’re both great guys who ran away screaming from this drama queen.   

The photo shoot itself was unremarkable and she claims she sees “it our souls” hence the name of her one-man shop photography business.  After the shoot the fun really began.   She was unreachable, apparently had moving problems, kid problems, a flooded house, was sick several times and just overall a narcissistic emotional wreck.  We tried on numerous occasions to call, email and there’s no place to just show up since she appeared homeless at one point- and heaven forbid we did, one might think she would call the police and think we were stalking her.  When we finally did get the photos, they were not what we expected and rather than arguing, we just reshot them with a more professional firm with staff and meaning. 

When we first went to her website, we should have known what we were getting into.  Every photo is of her, head tilted, pouty lips, and a Starbucks in hand. This poor soul has some much drama in her life and trying to live the dream of a former model, when all she is, is a has-been trying to live a gilded life in Scottsdale, Arizona. I think they refer to them as $30K millionaires.

All we recommend is you do your research, ask around and ask for photos and be deliberate with your questions.  We found out there’s a lot of great photographers in the Phoenix metro are, some start up kids and retirees doing it as a hobby and will do trial shots for a fraction of what April Bennett charged us.  We actually found some relatively quickly and with much less drama and grief.   We would recommend you find these people and avoid April Bennett and Souls Image Photography.