Victoria and David Beckham’s son Brooklyn upsets photographers with Burberry gig

Victoria and David Beckham’s eldest son, Brooklyn, has upset professional photographers with his Burberry gig. Photographers are crying “sheer nepotism” after the 16-year-old was invited by the British luxury fashion house to shoot its latest fragrance campaign.

Brooklyn posted a series of photos on his Instagram over the weekend, announcing he was “excited” to photograph the Burberry campaign the next day. His gig appeared to be successful, with Burberry posting several of his work on its Instagram account and inviting followers to follow the live shoot with the hashtag #THISISBRIT.

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Posh Spice and the retired Manchester United star player must have been tremendously proud of their eldest. Not everyone is happy with the teen scoring a high-profile job, though. Leading industry photographers are frustrated that Brooklyn got the work because of his famous parents.

Chris Floyd, who has photographed celebrities including Stephen Fry and Paul McCartney, told the Guardian that Brooklyn using his parents’ fame to get the job “goes against everything his parents represent.”

“David and Victoria Beckham represent sheer willpower and graft. Especially her, she’s climbed that mountain all by herself. They represent hard work and then their 16-year-old son comes along and it’s sheer nepotism. He hasn’t done it from hard work, which is counter-intuitive to what his parents represent,” he said.

The photographer admitted, though, that it was “clever” of Burberry to hire Brooklyn because the boy has 5.9 million Instagram followers and that Brooklyn’s age is the company’s target market.

For photographer Jon Gorrigan, who has worked with models and several magazines, he suspected Burberry just wanted Brooklyn’s name attached to the campaign and had professional staff doing the real work.

“He’s obviously not going to be doing the lighting, he’ll have no clue of the programs, the cameras of Photoshop,” he claimed, adding the fashion house would likely have had everything well managed and all Brooklyn had to do what click the camera’s button.

“It infuriates me because I learned my trade and other photographers learn their trade but he’s not learning his trade,” Gorrigan told the paper.

Burberry chief creative and CEO Christopher Bailey defended the young photographer, saying Brooklyn was hired because he “has a really great eye for image” and his style and attitude embodied the spirit of the brand’s fragrance campaign.

It seems there are many people who did not agree with Burberry’s defence. Commenters on social media also thought Brooklyn was only hired because of his Beckham name.

“You probably have more qualified photographers working in your ecommerce studios who have been killing themselves jumping through the industry hoops on Jr wages for years. This is a disgrace. It's an insult to everyone in the field. But I hope all of the comments from 15 year old fan girls makes up for it. I hope his supporting team were on a decent day rate because they will clearly be far more knowledgeable than a 16 year old child,” Instagram user sarahlraymond wrote.

User crazyrita39 added, “It's really annoying that this little boy has got the chance to work with the best only cause of his name. ”

Brooklyn is the Beckhams’ first born. His younger brother, Romeo, 13, also worked with Burberry for the brand’s Christmas advert.