Photo Bug
This year, my wife and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary (we got married in 2000, so I can always easily remember what number we’re on). Our wedding day was awesome and filled with tons of wonderful memories. We hired a photographer to capture a lot of those great moments for us to relive.
Unfortunately, one bride’s wedding album will cause nothing but anxiety and grief.
Mitchell Ringness is the owner of MR. Photography, based in Duluth, Minnesota. The 30-year-old photographer’s website indicates that he photographs weddings statewide. In April of this year, however, Ringness’ significant other turned over a thumb drive to the police department for the city of Cloquet, which is just outside of Duluth.
Investigators found a video on the drive showing a bride in a state of undress. The police were able to determine that the video was shot in October of 2020, at The Barn of Chapeau Shores in Albert Lea, which is about 100 miles south from Minneapolis. The Cloquet authorities, in turn, reached out to the Albert Police Department to investigate.
“(The video contained) a depiction of a dressing room for a bride, taken from a very low angle,” police said in a statement of probable cause. “The video recording includes a depiction of the victim in her underwear and with her breasts exposed to the camera.”
Authorities went to the wedding venue and recognized the bridal suite shown in the video. They also found a small table that appeared to be where the video was taken. When police questioned the bride, she said she “had no idea about the hidden camera.” According to the authorities, the “victim confirmed that she did not instruct, pay, give permission or contact with defendant to do videography or boudoir photography.”
After the bride indicated she hired Ringness to photograph her wedding, he was charged with privacy interference, which is aptly known as a gross misdemeanor. According to Minnesota Statutes, a gross misdemeanor is a criminal offense that is more serious than a misdemeanor and not as serious as a felony. It carries a maximum of a $3,000 fine and up to 364 days in jail. Ringness was scheduled to make his first court appearance earlier this week.
Chad and Jayne Iverson, who own the Barn at Chapeau Shores wedding venue, said they were “shocked” by the allegations. The venue owners had not met Ringness prior to the 2020 incident. “The safety of our wedding couples and all guests is vitally important to us, so hearing this news has been very upsetting to us,” the couple said in a statement. “Anyone affected by this individual has our deepest sympathy.”
Since news of the incident broke, several other brides have come forward who had hired Ringness to photograph their weddings. Understandably, they fear they were also unknowingly recorded while getting dressed before the ceremony.
One such bride was Taylor Hughes, who went to high school with Ringness, and hired him to photograph her wedding in 2022. “The thought that I could potentially have been spied on – and not just me but my wedding party – it’s a lot to process I feel like,” she told a local news outlet.
Hughes said Ringness also shot her friend’s wedding in early August, four months after the investigation began but before prosecutors charged him. “We definitely want justice. We want something more to come to this, like a full investigation,” she said. “My heart goes out to the bride that was in that video that they did find.”
It will be interesting to see how this photography story develops.
Reg P. Wydeven
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