Jain Lemos » Photography and Publishing

Please be sure that you understand the full implications of Facebook’s Terms of Use (ToU) when you post images on their site.

This is a separate issue from the outrage over Facebook’s change to their ToU policy which indicated they “owned” your profile. On pressure, they went back to their previous ToU. However, that policy remains unacceptable to many picture professionals. Even if you “retain full ownership” in the content you post, you still give them rights to perpetually copy, display, excerpt, distribute, etc. your work as they see fit!

Facebook’s Terms of Use as it stands today (emphasis mine):

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

Jim M. Goldstein, a San Francisco-based photographer, has become the voice of reason on this issue. I chatted with him the other day and encourage everyone to read his blog posts and watch his full comments in his interview (video) with KPIX. Here is an excerpt:

“Facebook’s “not nearly as horribly shitty as the new one” ToU is still exceptionally unfriendly to photographers and other creatives. It still over reaches (just slightly less now) and I can’t help but think reflects a very distorted internal culture driven more by corporate lawyers and less by community managers. While the actions taken to revert the ToU stem a more immediate PR nightmare and exodus of users, photographers should NOT be under the impression that everything is now fine with Facebook. Facebook’s assumption of rights to the work submitted by copyright holders or 3rd parties posting digital assets (photos, videos, music, etc) that they just happen to like, but don’t own needs to be fixed and fast.”

I had a vision that somewhere inside the new stimulus spending would be a small mountain of assistance within The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for nature photographers, especially after meeting so many of you at the NANPA conference in Albuquerque last week. I contacted Victoria Hutter at The National Endowment for the Arts to ask about how they plan to allocate the new money they are receiving. I explained that many photographers are in dire need of financial help in order to continue with important projects documenting nature, conservation, animal behavior, travel, culture, climate change and other relevant cause topics and programs.

I went on to say that many publications and organizations previously assigning and/or acquiring photography have either folded or suffered severe setbacks, leaving photographers to abandon projects because they cannot afford to continue without the backing of traditional outlets for their work. I stressed how we need to quickly find alternate resourcing. Will the NEA help us?

Here is Ms. Hutter’s response:

Dear Jain: Thank you for your thoughtful note. Unfortunately, the NEA does not award individual grants, except through literature fellowships, since we were barred from Congress by doing so in 1997. So I’m afraid we won’t be able to assist your colleagues. In addition, if you look through our web site, you’ll note that 40% of all grant making funds goes to state arts agencies, plus we serve such a wide range of organizations that focusing on one group, such as nature photographers isn’t practical.

But I wish you all the best in your efforts.

After thanking her, she added: States and locals are definitely your better contacts for this. In case it’s helpful, here’s a list of state arts agencies: www.arts.gov.

Onward.

(Related, but twice removed: Chief Official White House photographer Pete Souza is on the job. A link to a photo gallery tracing the path of the ARRA is here, but I couldn’t get it to launch. Maybe the story hasn’t started just yet. )

Ah, semantics. Who cares? When it comes to talking about photography, it matters to me. Last week I went to Albuquerque to speak on editorial and educational photo licensing trends and terms. I also reviewed the portfolios of some twenty photographers at the North American Nature Photography Association’s (NANPA) Annual Summit.

In many conversations I heard phrases such as, “I’m not sure how or where to sell my work,” or “Who do you think will buy my photos?”

What I teach is what I learned when I started in this business, circa 1988. We don’t sell and clients don’t buy; we license and they license the rights to use our creations. Even if your work is in the form of a product (such as prints or DVDs with per unit pricing), inherent in that product pricing is an intellectual property value. Like any property, the value calculations have fixed and variable components. Whatever the transaction is all about, using the word license in our dealings helps this business become less like commodity trading and more like talent acquiring.

The steps at Strand Beach are temporarily closed. I’ve been walking on this beach for the past six years, knowing this was coming. But reality sank in when I found the steps blocked off. This very large construction project at Dana Point has been underway for many years; originally locked up in a city battle by a few lone souls trying to find a balance between progress and history. The beachfront homes in The Strand at the Dana Point Headlands are priced from $20 million to $24 million for homes about 6,100 square feet on next to what will be a future private beach club. Some homes include an infinity-edge pool with underwater sound systems and stools next to a swim-up bar that connects to an outdoor kitchen. They have a nice website, don’t you think? Way in the background you can see a surfer heading down the hill via the old (soon to be changed) dirt path.

I guess the bigger question is: Are you shovel ready? Having some projects ready to go is a good thing to do while we are being diverted from our previous routes.

Construction at The Strand, Dana Point CA, Photo by Jain Lemos

Swing Time by Allen Bryan

Today you will stop to experience the Comforts of Home. I reviewed Allen Bryan’s exceptional collage photographs while judging entries in Photolucida’s Critical Mass competition last fall. In his artist’s statement about the series, Allen explains the images are, “…disquieting panoramas to examine the belongings of the phantom occupant who may return at any moment.” When I spoke with Allen last week, he called himself an emerging photographer, but clearly he has mastered the art on many levels. He told me he now looks for empty spaces and furniture to shoot, without anything in mind until he begins to compile his rooms, never knowing where he is going to end up.

There are currently eighteen images in the series, and Swing Time is one of my favorites. There is the perfect balance and blur on the child swinging and the hand reaching in to the bowl. The large piece of plywood lines up with the swing as though it is a slide into the room with a mattress landing. I could certainly go on! Here is the link to see the Comforts of Home series. Which rooms do you like, and why?