Photographer and multimedia artist Anna Marie Tendler is facing backlash from fans of Taylor Swift after posting a TikTok last week in which she said that a particular set design in Swift’s new Eras tour looked strikingly like her own work. Tendler later clarified that the video had been meant as a joke.
Tendler is the ex-wife of comedian John Mulaney. Before their divorce in 2019, Tendler was known mostly as a make-up artist and millennial beauty guru. Tendler briefly studied photography at Parsons before dropping out to pursue fashion.
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In 2021 Tendler began exhibiting photos, gothic and witchy in style, from a series titled “Rooms in the First House” at the Other Art Fair in Santa Monica, California, and has since sold portrait sittings in the same style at other editions of the fair.
In Tendler’s TikTok, a clip from Swift’s tour, in which the musician is setting a table as part of the choreography, flashes by briefly at the beginning. Tendler then shows her photograph from the series, titled Dinner in March (2021), as she says, “this … setup looks strikingly like one of my photographs in tone and in aesthetics. It doesn’t totally feel like parallel thinking to me.”
“I’m a small artist, [an] independent artist who is trying to make money and live off of my artwork,” Tendler continues in the video. Though Tendler is a much smaller artist than Taylor Swift (who isn’t?), Tendler has a significant online following and sells prints of her work there for $5,000–$6,500. Harper’s Bazaar reported last year that some works of hers sold out at an art fair with prices in “the mid-six figures.”
At the end of the video, Tendler asks for help, “I don’t know what to do about this. Maybe somebody can help me.”
It’s this teary sentiment and the fact that there are very few similarities between the concert set and Tendler’s photograph that led some people to believe the video was made as a joke or in an effort to attract controversy. Tendler has since deleted the video.
In a repost of the video published Sunday, Tendler commented, “Hi! This was meant to be a joke. Most of my videos are jokes or satire! When I realized it wasn’t landing as a joke I deleted it. Didn’t mean offense.”
Tendler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.