What is ethics?
- Normative ethics – a set of rules to stick to
- Meta ethics – over arching concept, model release forms
- Descriptive ethics – the study of ethics itself
What is
responsibility?
- The cause and effect of your images
- Being aware of your actions
- Reactions tell us if we are being responsible
Robert Capa
- His famous image ‘The Falling Soldier’ has caused a lot of discussion in the media about if the image is real or staged. Should he have helped the victim?
- Did he cause this injury? Or is this just staged?
James Nachtwey
- War photographer
- Ethics of photojournalism
- Does he intervene in the situation?
- He goes in very close to the subjects when they looked distressed
- Is this ethical or responsible as a photographer and a person?
- Is it worth being so involved for the image?
The
responsibility of a photographer has on their subject
- Might effect social change
- Safe guarding the situation
- May lose control of the images being published
- Depends what you want the photograph to do and show
- Social media affects, how it can be perceived
- Can it be edited to deceive the audience?
Copyright
- Who owns the image?
- Who creates it?
- It will depend on who you work for
- Make sure the contract states you can use for your own promotional work
- Street photographers do not need the permission to take these images
- There is no law in public spaces to say this cannot take place
- Some buildings have copyright on them, the owners rights
An example of
this;
- Sherrie Levine (feminist) “after Walker Evans”. She made a reproduction of famous photographs, which wasn’t printed perfectly, and was always men that photographed the original image. She photographed a photograph.
Copyright
Licensing:
- Freelance, your own
- If you made the work, it is yours
- Always keep the negative image
- If you are commissioned on an idea, you still own the image.
- If you sell your work it is a licensee but still your copyright on the image.
- Photocopying you will need to register with DACS.
Do not assign
your rights other the image:
- Ask what they are planning to do with your work
- Have payment for each use of the images
- Make sure you put what you agree to the image in writing
- This stops client claiming an “implied license”
Moral Rights:
- Is the right to a by-line or credit your work
- The right to object and distort your work
- Always charge something for your images
- You can object, by UK law, to distort your own work, which reports on current events wherever it appears.
- ‘Model Rights Asserted’
Model release
form:
- Shows your professional ethics
- It makes a contract with that person your photographing
- Good for future reference