What are the rules that govern journalistic portrait photography? Wide-angle lenses, nonstandard lighting, shooting from below – they’re all fair game and frequently employed by photogs working for major publications. But what obligation is there to the subject – and the audience?
Listen to this On the Media segment and hear from photographers Jill Greenberg, Platon and Martin Schoeller and former Time Magazine director of photography MaryAnne Golon. And, of course, our cohost Bob Garfield.
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Slideshow: See more photo portaits mentioned in this piece.
Comment: Let us know what YOU think. Bob Garfield will reading your comments and sharing his thoughts as well.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
a couple of things about jill (my wife, and her part-time publicist/sharp elbow): first of all, the atlantic asked (in writing) for jill to leave mccain’s eyes red and to keep him looking “tired” looking. that was their agenda.
second, and both amusing and yet sad: on the media did not ask for jill’s permission to use her copyrighted image of mccain. they just pulled it from her website, i guess. there is the obvious irony of this given what the piece is about (the rules of photographic journalism), the sad fact that even the on the media people don’t seem to know that photographers own their copyright (something jill said to bob but he cut it out of the piece). abusing photographer’s copyright–now there’s an interesting issue. perhaps bob, you might want to cover it sometime. platon, if you are reading this as alleged above, perhaps you’ve had some experiences like this?
until then guys, you might want to ask jill before you steal her work.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
and
i want to add that if you don’t publish the comment above in its entirety we will not look kindly upon your misuse of jill’s copyrighted image, and i mean that in the harshest way possible.
this one you don’t have to publish.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Dude, there’s something called ‘fair use.’ You might want to familiarize yourself with it if you’re going to work as your wife’s publicist.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
fair use is an argument, not a fact. jill was on the phone with NPR and no one asked for her permission to use her work in the context of her interview.
http://www.pdnpulse.com/fine_art/
helmut newton’s lawyers felt that the use of his material on a blog was inappropriate.
it would have been nice if NPR had asked jill. legally, it is an open question.
it would also have been nice if bob had accurately reported that jill spoke with PDN, not the NY Post. the Post asked jill for permission to use her photo and she said no: they did anyway. that of course is no surprise–we are talking about a right-wing propaganda rag that wouldn’t know honesty or the truth if it was hit upside the head with it–but from NPR i guess one expects something a bit better. and given the context of the piece, it is kind of funny in an ironic way that NPR stepped into contentious territory in terms of photo journalistic ethics in a story about…photo journalistic ethics.
November 28th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Believe it or not, there are a ton of frivolous cease and desist letters thrown around by lawyers. If you want to be convincing, you should point to a case where a judge has actually made a ruling.
Legally speaking, it is not an open question. What’s a fact is that by any objective measurement, OTM’s use of Jill’s photos passes the four terms of fair use. Period. Would it have been nice if they asked beforehand? Sure. But that doesn’t mean you need to make thinly veiled threats to respond in “the harshest way possible.”
I did a quick google image search for Jill’s photos and dozens and dozens of independent website showed up with her photos. Are you going to track down all those people and harass them on their blogs?
And outside the bounds of law, speaking as a content creator myself, I really don’t understand the conniption fits folks like you or Helmut Newton or whoever go into when other people display your work in the context of a larger journalistic article. Jill gets more publicity and OTM’s use doesn’t mean lost revenue or work.
Or, maybe you’re just raising a stink simply to cause even more publicity. That’s not true, though, is it? That would be awful cynical.
November 28th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
A point of clarification:
While NPR distributes On The Media, the program is produced entirely by WNYC Radio, which makes all of On The Media’s editorial decisions and is responsible for its content.
As such, Mr. Green’s comments and critiques regarding NPR should, instead, be directed toward WNYC Radio, which made the decision to post the photographs in question.
John Keefe
Senior Executive Producer, News
Executive Producer, On The Media
WNYC Radio