Translation of the article

Neighborhood annoyed by boisterous sex

PAPENDRECHT – Inhabitants of the Talingstraat in Papendrecht are looking for a solution for a couple of neighbors whom having boisterous sex.

The couple moved in a short while ago and argue nearly every day. When the argument is over, they reconcile with noisy and passionate sex, which is still noticeable on the street.

This made me really curious about a couple of things.

1. Did the editor choose a right-free photo, or did they ‘steal’ a copyrighted photo from Flickr?
2. What was the original intention of the photo?
3. What did the photographer think of this usage?

Within five minutes I found the photo, belonging to user Tim PopUp, using ‘Advanced Search’ on Flickr. The editor did use a right-free photo, although they are still supposed to credit the photographer in the caption. The photo obviously wasn’t intended to be used in a sexual context.

Conversation
I contacted the photographer and asked him what he thought about it. This was his first response (thanks Tim, for allowing me to publish the conversation!).

Hello Jeroen

Thank you for taking the time to point this out to me, the photograph is of my daughter, she will be pleased.
Your right they should at least credit me, I will contact them.

Kind Regards
Tim

My assumption was right; it was the photographers daughter. I felt I was obliged to tell Tim about the context of the photo, so I translated the lead and first paragraph of the article. I was quite surprised about his response. If it happened to one of my photos (especially in this context), I probably would probably be less pleased.

Hi Jeroen

Thanks again, this does put it in a different light doesn’t it. I don’t think my daughter would be quite as pleased now! She might find it funny though.
The photo has had quite a few views today, this explains it, I was wondering what was happening.
Your photographs are great, lots of interest in them.

Cheers
Tim

Obviously, he isn’t pleased with the usage of his photo in this context, but his response is quite mild if you ask me. But then again; what’s the point of being pissed off at stuff like this? It wouldn’t do much good anyway. The photo is removed from the website of AD a couple of weeks ago, although it’s being linked to on websites like NuJij.nl.

How would you react?

UPDATE: Tim’s wife posted a comment for more clarification. Be sure to read it!

How would you react? is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

To be honest, I’ve never heard of this magazine, which is quite a surprise to me, since I was under the impression that I knew most Dutch arty-farty magazines. I think it goes without saying that every photographer wants to know if, when, how and where their work will be published. But GUP obviously didn’t realize this.

Publisher Peter Bas Mensink posted the following comment on Ben Roberts’ blog.

“… This is a magazine born out of love for the medium and respect for the photographers. It’s not profitable and probably will never be. It’s a podium for photographers (read our statement on our website). For every category in the magazine we contact the photographers involved, however for bkmrks this proofed quite impossible. contacting ±15 photographers worldwide – every issue – is a very complicated thing. We’ll get photographers wanting a say in the text we write, wanting to supply us with their own text, diverting us to their gallery, who are on assignment abroad, not reachable etc. etc. etc. We work deadlines….”

The arguments Mensink makes, are pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Every photographer either has a simple contact form or a mailto-link on his or her website. It will only take a couple of minutes to send an email to a photographer, asking for permission to publish.

If, like the publisher comments, the photographer doesn’t respond before the deadline, just publish the photos of another photographer. I know that deadlines can sneak up on you, but important stuff like this shouldn’t suffer from deadlines.

EDIT: A few hours after my post, I received an email from Peter Bas Mensink, asking me to publish the rest of his comments. I don’t really see any reason for that to be honest (I’ve read them all, on Roberts’ blog anyway, and you can do the same if you wish), but I would like to add the following.

I obviously like magazines that are created for the love of photography, and I think it’s okay for a non-profit magazine to publish photos without paying the photographer. So for me, it isn’t about money at all, but just about common manners. I don’t know if Mensink is a photographer too, but I bet he would like to know if photos of him will be published.

“Contacting photographers is too complicated” is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog