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Good News for Photobloggers: You Can Sell Your Shots
By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Feb 14, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Feb 14, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Some good news for photobloggers and fans of street photography: a Manhattan judge has ruled photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia was well within his rights to sell copies of this photograph of an Orthodox gentleman. The shot was taken as part of diCorcia's "Heads" project, which involved shooting pictures using a concealed camera. The Post reports:
...Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische ruled that the head shot showing Nussenzweig, with a white beard, a black hat and a black coat, is art — even though the photographer took it surreptitiously near Times Square in 2001 and then sold 10 prints of it at $20,000 to $30,000 each...
...New York's right-to-privacy laws prohibit the use of someone's likeness for commercial purposes without the person's permission. But if the likeness is deemed to be art, the commerce restrictions do not apply.
This seems to reaffirm the right of photographers to take and sell pictures of people without getting signed waivers, as long as the purpose of the pictures is making art. [Related: for some great street photography, check out Joe's NYC, Slower, and Travis Ruse.]
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Jacob Dobkin
Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.
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