Stop by and copy my images?

[Jim Jones]

I'm with Struan (post 5). Art should be a passion: that's what makes it art. Business is business. If someone wants to snap a memento in my exhibits, fine. If they can't afford the modest price of my photos or have no place to hang a print, at least they have the snapshot. If they buy a print, that is nice, too.

[Thad Gerheim]

This is a tough question, because you don't want to seem negative and yet this is downright stealing. When I see this happening, which happens a fair amount, I try to explain what it takes and costs me to get that photo that they are casually copying. I have people ask if they can take a picture to show their spouse to see if they're interested, I say yes, and maybe 10% or less do buy.

I had a wealthy lady ask me to print a photo of some art work she took pictures of while on a cruise, I explained to her that it was probably copyright violation and outright stealing to do this. That was four years ago and she hasn't talked to me since.

A realtor told me that she sold a house that had one of my photos in it that the new buyers wanted, but was not going with the house so she took it to have it scanned and printed for the new owners. I couldn't believe it, and told her that it was wrong to do that, it was like she had no idea.

[Darin Boville]

O.K., great discussion. Here's what happened on my end.

My first reaction was that I should prohibit photography in my gallery. That would prevent copying but that also means that I would have to enforce that policy. Maybe be rude or accidentally rude. Change the whole vibe of the gallery.

Then it occurred to me that the girl was not a customer. She was not buying and probably would never buy. So i wasn't losing sales due to her iPhone.

Then I thought about how seemingly impossible it would be to really police the situation. Then I remembered my web page, where the images can be take at will. Oh.

A "no photography" rule seemed to have a lot of downside but not much upside.

So why not *not* worry about it. Let people take photographs, at least phone images. It makes them happy, maybe remind them of my gallery. Maybe they'll talk about it, maybe they'll come back. Heck, maybe they are shooting to remind themselves or to show another person a print they want to buy. Who knows. Why should I care? (And then, I though, if the experience of viewing one of my prints can be that easily replicated by an iPhone photo maybe I'm in the wrong medium--can you snap a pict of a Bernini and confuse it with the original? But that's a different topic...)

So that's where I was until at dinner when my fifteen-year-old daughter had a better idea. Their picture probably won't be very good, she said. Misframed, blurry, bad colors. They'll hang them on their wall or cubicle and it won't look as good as it should. It's your photo and it won't look good. And no one will know where it came from. Why not, she suggested, make a nice 5x8 inch postcard of one image from each exhibit area, put them near the door, and give them away for free. Have the gallery name n the corner of the postcard, unobtrusive.

Don't stop them from stealing the image, don't ignore them stealing the image, instead, give them the image. The more I thought about it the more it made sense. It made a lot of sense on a lot of different levels.

I ordered postcards that night, Sunday and, surprisingly, they arrived today.



--Darin

[Andrew O'Neill]

Fine, but she should have asked first. That's just down right rude on her part.

[marfa boomboom tx]

O.K., .......
So that's where I was until at dinner when my fifteen-year-old daughter had a better idea. Their picture probably won't be very good, she said. Misframed, blurry, bad colors. They'll hang them on their wall or cubicle and it won't look as good as it should. It's your photo and it won't look good. And no one will know where it came from. Why not, she suggested, make a nice 5x8 inch postcard of one image from each exhibit area, put them near the door, and give them away for free. Have the gallery name n the corner of the postcard, unobtrusive.

Don't stop them from stealing the image, don't ignore them stealing the image, instead, give them the image. The more I thought about it the more it made sense. It made a lot of sense on a lot of different levels.

I ordered postcards that night, Sunday and, surprisingly, they arrived today.



--Darin

Welcome to take one, leave one.

rL

[AtlantaTerry]

I ordered postcards that night, Sunday and, surprisingly, they arrived today.



--Darin

I can't see in the photo but I hope your postcards have your Copyright notice on them. A little CYA.

[Struan Gray]

Jim: ta very much :-)

Darin: the free postcard thing is done quite a lot by European galleries and museums. There was a 90s craze for bars and coffee shops to have racks of free postcards from various museums and other organisations, often advertising the show of the moment. If you know of other galleries in the area - or other units in your gallery's building - who might be interested, it is an effective way to advertise in the local area.


PS: there *is* a downside. My four-year-old was found staggering towards the doors of a gallery under the weight of a ream or so of nicely printed A4 exhibition flyers on good, stiff paper. 'They're fantastic for paper aeroplanes!'

[matthew blais]

On the positive she could be texting that image to a friend as "Hey check out the new gallery here"...or maybe her hubby..."Hey Honey, should we buy this one?"
Next time...Talk to her...People do actually converse and you should be chatting her up anyway since you let her in.
Could be a positive for marketing your work and space.

I highly doubt she's gonna make a print off a cell phone shot, or go in search of your tripod marks.

[Jmarmck]

Darin, You need to hire your daughter.

[marfa boomboom tx]

Welcome to take one, leave one.

a big bend photographer leaves his pictures around the store on shelves, free for the taking
http://www.frenchcogrocer.com/Home.html


occasionally I drop some off here too, as payment to him.


I first saw this back at SFAI days(68). It assumes a different pathway.