Schools scrap picture day after Epstein link to photo company uncovered

Parents and critics alike erupted in fury Friday after an alleged Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator was linked to one of the nation’s largest school photography companies, prompting multiple districts to cancel picture days, HuffPost reported.

That company is Lifetouch, which provides photography services for schools across the nation, and proudly touts on its website that it’s “built on the tradition of ‘Picture Day.’” Lifetouch is owned by Apollo Global Management Group, an assets management firm co-founded by billionaire Leon Black, a key source of Epstein’s wealth.

And, while Black has since stepped down as Apollo Global Management Group’s CEO, new details about his relationship with Epstein revealed recently – along with the company’s new CEO, billionaire Marc Rowan, another individual with close ties to Epstein – have prompted several school districts to cancel picture days it had scheduled with Lifetouch, and sparked fury among parents and critics online.

“Lifetouch is the largest school photo company in the country,” wrote Briana Rose Lee, the chair emerita of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in a social media post on X. “They keep a database of all the digital photos of kids and their personal info. Burn. It. All. Down.”

Black, who reportedly paid Epstein $158 million for tax advice, stepped down as CEO of Apollo Global Management Group in 2021 after reporting revealed new details about his relationship with Epstein. After the Justice Department’s most recent release of Epstein files last month, however, a wave of “concerned parents” led to school districts in Texas and Arizona cancelling their scheduled picture days with Lifetouch “out of an abundance of caution.”

Lifetouch published a statement responding to the concern, denying any wrongdoing and insisting that it does not – and “has never provided” – photographs of children to third parties.

“Lifetouch images are shared only for the purposes of school records and to allow parents or guardians to purchase them,” the company wrote in a statement.

“Additionally, as part of our decades long relationship with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Lifetouch prints SmileSafe cards free of charge for each student we photograph that families can use with law enforcement if a child goes missing.”