L.A. Photographer Accused of Slandering Fellow Male Photographer as Serial ‘Harasser’ of Women

Posted on by Gregory Hoyt

LOS ANGELES, CA – A female photographer, with a sizeable profile and following, is currently facing criticism over what some online are claiming is a libelous characterization of a male peer in her field, with her teeing up unsubstantiated Me Too-style rumors to malign the male photographer in question.

On May 14, noteworthy photographer Ashley Osborn posted to her over 33K followers on X (formerly Twitter) a leading question regarding fellow photographer Johann Ramos-Arteaga, asking her followers whether they’re aware of “any other women in the photo/industry” who have “been harassed” by Ramos-Arteaga.

For the sake of context, Ramos-Arteaga’s professional portfolio is under his brand dubbed The Work of Jar.

The above question posed by Osborn, aside from directly claiming that Ramos-Arteaga was guilty of some unspecified form of harassment against women, seemingly came out of nowhere. A cursory review of Osborn’s social media reveals she never posted any sort of accusation against Ramos-Arteaga before and seemingly has never mentioned him at all in public posts.

Considering Osborn’s reach on social media, it wasn’t long before Ramos-Arteaga caught wind of the vague allegations against him being peddled by his peer in the photography community, calling Osborn’s actions “a witch hunt” devoid of any meaningful “context.”

In response, Osborn only offered up more ambiguous elements to her allegation that Ramos-Arteaga is some kind of serial harasser of women, claiming she’d been in contact with “four women since posting” her May 14 claims which she asserted substantiates her allegations.

What’s all the more interesting is that Osborn only mentioned conversing with a certain number of unnamed people after posting the vague smear against Ramos-Arteaga but didn’t offer any insight as to what she’d specifically heard before her original post that led to the ensuing debacle. Furthermore, when reviewing the responses in support of Osborn’s original post, the replies mentioned no first-hand accounts of Ramos-Arteaga acting improperly with women but only the existence of vague rumors.

Osborn went on to claim that her publicly posting about these allegations against Ramos-Arteaga weren’t a “witch hunt” and that she was somehow concerned about her male peer’s “mental health.”

Yet, Osborn’s actions seem to contradict her characterized motive behind the social media posting considering she made a spectacle of unsubstantiated malicious rumors about Ramos-Arteaga that most reasonable people would see how these rumors could wreak havoc on someone’s mental health.

However, the ostensible libel waged against Ramos-Arteaga wound up conjuring an unexpected ally in defense of the photographer, with Falling in Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke inserting himself into the fold by quoting Osborn’s post and stating the drama-peddling photographer is notorious for spreading “stupid ass lies” and has a history of making “shit up constantly.”

The introduction of Radke into the matter spawned a back-and-forth between he and Osborn, with the female photographer initially trying to snarkily play off Radke’s claims of her habitually peddling false narratives for social media clout. However, Osborn’s snark was extinguished quickly when Radke heatedly denounced her purported schtick in a follow-up post highlighting her attempt at snark.

Suddenly, Osborn dialed back her snark aimed at the Falling in Reverse frontman, claiming she was going to send Radke an email to “explain the situation” regarding the rumors she began peddling about Ramos-Arteaga.

According to Osborn, her rationale for not wanting to provide any substantial evidence supporting her claims was because “it involves people who don’t want to be named publicly,” seemingly missing the irony of her attempting to muster an outrage mob publicly against someone she named using anonymous sources and claims that can neither be directly confronted or scrutinized.

Meanwhile, Radke summarized Osborn’s motivations as only being self-serving, pointing out how the attempt to defame Ramos-Arteaga would stand to financially benefit Osborn since the two share the same creative space and such rumors going about Ramos-Arteaga would “take [her] competition down.”

Being confronted by Radke on social media clearly inspired a change of heart for Osborn, with the photographer delivering a final response to the singer by saying she’s “going to go ahead and bow out of this one” with respect to circulating salacious rumors about Ramos-Arteaga.

Of course, Osborn’s sudden backpedaling was likely motivated by having to combat scrutiny from a celebrity whose following is substantially larger than hers rather than spurring from integrity, which is another ironic twist considering she seemed more than happy to use her imposing social media presence to try and defame a fellow photographer.

Website |  + posts

Gregory Hoyt is a former contributor to outlets such as Law Enforcement Today and Red Voice Media, and current host of The Breakdown with Greg Hoyt. Based out of Sierra Vista, Arizona, Hoyt is a staunch and outspoken advocate of law enforcement and first responders, while also harboring the unique experience of having spent nearly 5 years in prison. Since then, he's used his unique perspective to offer support and commentary about the criminal justice system. When not working or combating bad ideas, Hoyt also leisurely studies economics, history, and law.