Did The UK’s Photographers’ Gallery Use Image Without Permission?

Porcelain, 2008. Image by John Goldsmith

That would seem more than ironic, but according to documentary photographer John Goldsmith, the answer is a clear “yes.” In fact, he adamantly claims, “[t]he Photographers’ Gallery has worked to ensure that my rights as a photographer have been violated while their own interests have benefited.”According to Goldsmith,

It was on May 13, 2008 when I first published this image to the popular photo sharing website Flickr. The photo, called “Porcelain,” quickly became one of my most viewed images: 14,737 views to date. It was a candid photograph of a stranger – a street photograph –taken through the window of a coffee house in downtown Vancouver. The casual glance is all that we know of the woman. We don’t know her name. We don’t know where she is from. We have no idea if the book she is reading is fiction or non-fiction. But, one person recognized the photograph and had the courtesy to tell me about its use. Since that time, the photograph has been transformed, with the woman and her belongings carefully spliced from my documentary photograph and put into a polished marketing campaign for an extravagant £8.7 million renovation of The Photographers’ Gallery.

Goldsmith claims to have registered his photograph with the US Copyright Office, and also admits to not having obtained a release from the woman in the picture. Goldsmith has hired an attorney to represent him in regard to this case, but it’s unclear if a copyright lawsuit has been filed. One would have to take a closer look at both Goldsmith’s image and the Photographers’ Gallery image to assess fair use or not. Although remember, here we have a (presumably) Canadian citizen and a UK arts organization, so I’m (pretty) sure US Copyright law would apply.

Additionally, both Yahoo and flickr make their community guidelines, as well as copyright and intellectual property rules quite explicit. Unless Goldsmith somehow waived all his IP rights, it’s hard to see how The Photographers’ Gallery could have believed the image was fair game.

Goldsmith tells more on his blog, John Goldsmith Photography. Check it out.

Tags: documentary photography, fair use, images, intellectual property, piracy