The photographer who snapped a skier hanging upside down and pantless from a chairlift this week says he has been suspended by his employer.
Marty Odom's pictures of the unnamed skier at Colorado's Vail Resort have gained worldwide fame after he stumbled upon the incident during his day off.
But according to Mr Odom, the resort has now revoked his ski fields pass while his photography company has barred him from work until the matter is cleared up.
"Even though I never mentioned the company I worked for, Vail Resorts pulled my pass and it looks like I’m going to lose my job over a photo," Mr Odom wrote on website Transworld Snowboarding.
"But the photo is worth it … I shot the best photo that I’m going to shoot all year."
The pictures show the 48-year-old man hanging naked from the waist down after his pants became caught on the chairlift.
Mr Odom's employer reportedly said he had violated the man’s privacy by taking the photos — even though the photographer did it with his own camera on his day off.
The mishap happened when the skier attempted to board a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin with a young child on the morning of January 1.
When he tried to climb on, the man slipped through a gap in the seat that was not properly in place, US media said.
His right ski and — more humiliatingly — his pants then jammed in the chairlift and prevented him from falling onto the snowdrift below.
He was left hanging for about seven minutes as Vail personnel stopped the lift, backed it up and dislodged the hapless skier from the four-seat chair.
Vail Resorts later issued a press release saying the man was not injured after the humiliating experience but offered no explanation as to how it happened.
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