Copyright issues

Copyright issues have always been a bone of contention as unscrupulous agency staff and picture editors want to use images and not have to pay for them. Or they adapt them to look veryslightly different and call it their idea. Unless you have a very strong case with plenty of backup material, and deep pockets, these days it seems that anything goes and the original photographer is the loser. Young photographers who are willing to work for peanuts will accept a job regardless of the fact that they are copying someone else's work. I found this long comment thread through the OCA site and read the first half a dozen comments and the latest half dozen comments but in the end the overall opinion was that even though the original photographer had had his work adapted there was very little he could do about it as he had refused to sell the image to a publisher in the first place. 

http://littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/this-is-annoying/#comments 

When I worked as a commercial photographer, covering social charity events for a drink related forum, I was asked for my negatives with no indication that I would be paid for them. When I refused, the manager said that I would never work for them again if I didn't hand them over for free. Fortunately I was in a position that I didn't need their work, which wasn't very lucrative anyway, so I stuck to my guns, but never got any offers of work from them again!

It's one of life's lessons to learn that this does happen and decide how you will react if it happens to you. As I said, the one time I was threatened, I was able to walk away, some people are not so lucky as to be able to do that.

http://webdesign.about.com/od/copyright/Copyright_Issues_on_the_Web_Intellectual_Property.htm 

Male Domination in Photography

This has been a subject that I have been watching in Flickr recently and it's interesting to read the different points of view from both male and female photographers. 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ocarts/discuss/72157624647324931/ 

I was a commercial photographer at Heathrow airport in the late 1980s/90s when there weren't too many photographers around and the work was spread around quite nicely, thank you. I worked for several airlines around the airport doing mainly 'grip and grins' and feature pictures for their publications. There were three airport photographers (not press photographers as you see in TV programmes such as Airport) and the ratio of male to female was one male to two females (me included). Each of us specialised in a different area and if you wanted a particular type of picture you went to one person.


Later on more photographers came on the scene but these were mainly men who specialised in aircraft photographs rather than people which meant that my area of expertise remained fairly available. There was no fighting, no commercial rivalry and when we met up, as we did occasionally, we chatted as friends. If we needed help or couldn't meet an obligation, a quick phone call to one of the others made sure the job was covered.

I really don't think it matters what sex a true photographer is, what matters is their work and their competence. If you have any skills in your area of expertise being male or female shouldn't come into the equation. A woman driving HGV lorries is accepted for what she does, not that she is, I think it is the same in photography, show you can do the job and you are accepted in the industry.

Bending Space - photography of Georges Rousse

I came upon this website by chance and was totally blown away. Firstly I thought it was my eye sight giving me trouble and that I might need new glasses but, when I looked and looked and read about Georges and his projects, I realised how amazing his work was.

His vision is something I know that I lack but to see it in others is pure pleasure. I can take an idea and go further but to have the original idea is the thing that I struggle with.

His works are photographs of paintings done on buildings which are made to look like overlays of colour. From the single point perspective of rousse’s camera, his paintings are made to appear 2-dimensional, in reality you would see that the paintings are strategically done in 3 dimensions.

 

This illusion is what makes rousse’s work so intriguing. his ‘durham’ project is
currently the subject of the documentary ‘Bending Space’, a fitting title to describe Rousse’s work.

http://www.georgesrousse.com/english/reception.html