by Angela Sanford
As an avid scrapbooker who document the special moments in the lives of my family, I have taken thousands of photos over the years – I mean I literally took over 2000 on one adventure to Scotland alone. However, my photographic files would look minute in comparison to a local lady, let’s call her Ms. Snapshot, who many of us would call a staple at community events, flashing the camera to capture the moments. Likely, it is good for the pair of us that photography went digital - wherever would we have stored all of these prints?
While I try to capture the special moments, I cannot always be in attendance when there’s an image I want to hold in hand, not just in thought. For these times, I have t trust that someone in attendance will not only be prepared to take the shot, but will also be willing to share it with me. For this, Ms. Snapshot was always agreeable; perhaps she still is though I haven’t seen her lately in this role. Ms. Snapshot shared her passion for photography and for community with everyone who reached out. I have been fortunate to be the recipient of such generosity by she and by others.
However, it is sometimes easy to take advantage of such generosity and commitment. There is an image hanging at the Sports Institute in Montreal that makes my heart sing. It is of Wyatt, upon his gold medal win at the Pan AM Games last fall. Obviously, we could not be in attendance, but that image captures Wyatt’s spirit, determination, and grit. It is truly a picture that speaks a thousand words. But it is not ours.
There have been other photos, taken by journalistic staff and others, over the years that I would have loved to share, but without the owner’s permission I cannot. A photograph is an authored work, with rights to be credited to the taker. Reprinting an image without said credit, is, yes, illegal, but more importantly unethical, stripping the producer of the acknowledgement of their own spirit, determination, and grit.
Giving credit to a photograph is often overlooked, and a teachable lesson in schools. Recently, an issue of giving credit for images and for use of generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been the focus of conversation with teachers. Images found online must be sourced and cited appropriately, to ensure that the owner receives recognition for their apt ability to capture exactly what we ourselves could not.
Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to limitations on images we can use, like the one hanging at the INS stadium – it would have made a great image for merchandise, specifically flags, but the licensing restricts it from use in commercial products, so off we search for a photographer, like Ms. Snapshot, who has the “perfect” image and has afforded us the generosity of its use.
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