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Susanne Helmert's avatar

You put so much thoughts into this difficult topic and also covered Tish Murta. Well done! Her work is truly impressive and although I am someone who always respects copyrights, in this particular case, I am not sure whether I would have written about her / shared her photos after reading the claimer from her daughter. On the other hand and as you said, you don’t make money from it and only want to make sure -as her daughter as well - that the work of Tish is not forgotten. I would say you only acted in the best and honorable way possible. I hope you don’t get into trouble for it.

Thank you for this important topic. I once mentioned to someone here on Substack (another photographer) who posted a photograph in Notes that it would be nice to give the creator credit (I was very polite) and I ended up being verbally harassed by several trolls. I was shocked. I will never understand why (especially) photographers won’t give credit where credit is due. Wouldn’t you want this for your own work as well? Well, I guess I know your answer already! Sorry, for the rant…

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Olli Thomson's avatar

A very thoughtful and helpful piece. I have had the same thoughts from time to time when writing the occasional photobook review. It may be possible to review a photobook without reproducing the photos, but it would be a challenge.

When I have done so my practice has been to produce the review then contact, the photographer either by a personal or a publisher's website. At worst I've had no response, more often a positive one. While doing it this way round - publish first, seek permission after - potentially falls foul of the letter of copyright law it means if the photographer chooses to engage he or she can see what use you are making of their work and make a judgement about whether to approve it. Since most of us who care about this kind of issue are probably the kind of people who care about photography and photographers, I suspect more likely than not permission would be granted. And if it wasn't I would simply take the post down, though that has never happened yet.

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