Friday, May 14, 2010

Uncredited reproduction of my artwork

I just had an odd experience: I found out that photographs of my artwork have been published in a magazine without my permission, and without giving me credit as the artist (see image, below). Also, one of the two photographs, that the magazine shot and published, was printed with the wrong orientation (showing a row of paintings hanging horizontally instead of vertically).

I've written to the editor and asked that I be given credit in a future issue. But I am surprised that any publication in this day and age would do something so unprofessional.

It's a magazine titled The Bay: Living Well on the East Bay & South Coast. In an article in its May 2010 issue on musical venues in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, there are two large color photographs of my work, as seen at my recent exhibit at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, MA (a two-person show with Jeanne Williamson).



I remember hearing a story that one of my professors from UMass Dartmouth, who painted many lovely views of New Bedford, had one of his paintings used on the cover of a publication about tourism in New Bedford without his permission and without naming him as the artist. The ending of that story is that he never said a word about it!!

Have you ever had or heard of an experience like this?

Hopefully, The Bay will publish a notice giving me credit in a future issue, which of course doesn't undo what has already been published, but will make amends. And hopefully this won't happen to another artist whose work is pictured in The Bay in the future.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've worked in the publishing industry for over 20 years; and 14 of them at a magazine.

Here's the rule: YOU DON'T DO THAT!

Whoever the publisher is, they are naive and asking for a lawsuit. The photographer and/or editor who took the shots should have been smart enough to credit the artwork. BUT...

Not that I'm suggesting that but REALLY.

Catherine Carter said...

I'm glad to have my thoughts confirmed by someone with your experience, Lynette.

I worked at a newspaper for 4 years, and I wrote many cutlines for photos. We were SCRUPULOUS about identifying everyone and everything in any photo. The reporters were required to carefully record everyone's name, and copy-editors had to double-check on this.

Thank you for writing.

ctutter said...

Catherine - I'm glad you were able to discover this serious infringement and that you're proactively exposing it to the arts community. Please keep us posted as to how the publisher responds.
Catherine Tutter

Catherine Carter said...

Thank you, Catherine, we'll see what happens. At least, I hope this publication gets the idea that this is not OK.