‘It ruined my night’: photographers accused of targeting women at St Andrews May Dip

Students taking part in university’s annual ritual say images of them in swimwear are being published without consent in national newspapers

When the sun rises at dawn on Friday, hundreds of St Andrews University students will brave the chilly North Sea for the annual May Dip, an undergraduate ritual said to bring good luck in exams. But the students won’t be alone at the beach. In recent years this quirky ritual has become a target for agency and freelance photographers looking to cash in on images of students in bikinis, including some who camp out overnight on the East Sands dunes near the Fife coastal path.

“It ruined my night,” said Anna, one of the students whose photo appeared last year in an online spread published by the Scotsman. “Now when I think about that May Dip, I think about that image, and that’s it.”