For concerned parties:

David Roberts has been in communication with ZEISS since January 2025, with verbal negotiations regarding partnership occurring on June 9th where base expectations of the partnership were established, confirmed in multiple emails, and not once refuted or disputed prior to contract signing.

Conversations were initiated with Head of Marketing at Carl Zeiss AG (Germany) and then delegated to the Southeast Asia subdivision. From June 9th 2025 David Roberts experienced multiple delays, lack of communication, culminating with a lack of adequate facilitation to meet proposed deliverables.

This ultimately endangered external deliverables – including with FUJILOVE Magazine, a long standing working relationship – and the projected production timeline for Discover Temples of Thailand. This was made explicit to ZEISS management at both the subdivision and HQ.

David Roberts gave ZEISS adequate opportunity to rectify facilitation and, in response, was requested return of ZEISS property. David has received written apologies regarding the situation and contradictions between what was stated by the subdivision and HQ.

Given production start on October 1st 2025 for David’s monograph Discover Temples of Thailand — reviewed by TASCHEN at concept stage alone — ZEISS was informed that facilitation for the project was a baseline expectation for partnership. Despite industry and institutional expectations, ZEISS ultimately chose contract termination over facilitation.

The outcome is a direct reaction to David’s unwavering integrity, and illustrates challenges of credible authorship — as proven credible by TASCHEN review and multiple collaborations/editorials prior — under influencer and metrics-based systems, underlining his post-social ethos as necessary and overdue.

ZEISS’ actions were perceived as failing to meet the standards David Roberts’ meticulously upheld through his tenure within the industry — on FUJILOVE Magazine, and independent work on DRobertsPhoto.com. Contradictions regarding facilitation methods negotiated verbally on June 9th were viewed as a failure of consideration to the nature of institutional documentary work and disregard of external deadlines.

David Roberts’ exclusivity contract made with ZEISS under their regional subdivision — effective September 1st 2025 — is now terminated as of September 26th 2025. ZEISS were introduced as partner in all pitches and submissions, on the basis that they would facilitate future projects.

The decision to provide ZEISS the ultimatum of facilitation or dissolution was not made lightly or without regard to consequences. David accepted ZEISS’ choice of termination as to continue with future projects with full authority over content and context.

David ended all prior relationships with optical manufacturers and invested 270,000 THB personally into equipment — ZEISS Batis 2/25, 2/40CF, 1.8/85, and Sony A7RV & FX30 as future- proof platforms due to ZEISS/Sony relations — to ensure compliance with personal work under full exclusivity.

David archived all prior non-ZEISS images, including overhauling DRobertsPhoto.com upholding metadata exclusivity — matching (if not exceeding) industry standards for digital archiving. All prior collaborators including multiple optical manufacturers and editorials were informed that materials provided must also be considered archived and not actively promoted.

The commitment and seriousness in which David treated the partnership was not reflected by the actions of ZEISS. David takes full responsibility in believing the legacy of ZEISS would reflect their current operational capabilities.

ZEISS themselves have acknowledged that future collaboration is not possible, effectively confirming the operational and facilitation challenges experienced. David has requested that in light of the situation, ZEISS refrains from future contact or public affiliation despite conceding to an amicable dissolution.

Whilst the situation ultimately led to disappointment, it is still worth noting that David Roberts is a photographer ZEISS deemed worthy of attention. Unfortunately, ZEISS is not a partner David Roberts deems operationally capable of supporting his forthcoming IP.

This situation does not reflect David’s assessment of the quality of ZEISS optics, their use in his workflow, or the respect he has for the ZEISS legacy.

Thank you for your continued support in light of these changes. It is imperative that partners and collaborators respect my ethos of integrity and candour. My work revolves around the ethics of modern societal advancements and I hold my institutional partnerships to the same rigour as to which I do my photographic work.

— David