#I know many people just aren't aware that these are fan photos because the photography is such high quality

[thistledropkick]

For people who aren't aware: Most of those gorgeous wrestling photos from Japanese wrestling promotions that you see reposted on tumblr and elsewhere were taken by fans. They look like professional photos, because the fan photographers are just that skilled. But they are fan photos, taken by wrestling fans just like you.

Most of those fan photographers don't want people taking their photos and reposting them elsewhere without permission.

Fan photographers will generally clarify this in their profiles. They often even go out of their way to write this information in English too. But even if they don't, you can run their profiles through machine translate and check, and if you're still not sure, you should ask the photographer for permission directly before reposting their work.

I've seen fan photographers lock their accounts, stop posting new photos online entirely, and delete their photo archives due to rampant reposting. If you enjoy the work of wrestling fan photographers, you should respect their wishes regarding that work.

#I know many people just aren't aware that these are fan photos because the photography is such high quality #If you didn't know this before - now you do! #I know some people already know this and just don't care but I'm not really talking to them and they wouldn't listen to me anyway #I block accounts if I notice them posting a whole lot of reposted stuff like this against the photographer's clearly stated wishes #especially if that work is stolen from people who I know :| #This is not a post about crediting sources #You should of course always credit the photographer #but if a photographer writes 'do not repost my photos' that doesn't mean 'repost my photos with credit' #it means don't repost their photos