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Model Releases
July 28th, 2008
The Travel Photographer has been on a roll the last few days. On Friday he posted a short article about Model Releases, on Saturday an article about the censorship of war photographers, and on Sunday, an article about photographing people and the need for relationships. All good stuff. The article on model releases reminded me to finally post my thoughts - I get at least a couple emails a week asking me how I approach this subject.
Q:Do I use model releases when I shoot internationally.
A: Sometimes. When I shoot for a client, like World Vision, and they ask for signed consent, we get it. It’s not always easy, but we have field staff who speak the language and usually the hardest part is just tracking down the actual legal guardian of children we’ve photographed. But when I travel on my own and shoot for my portfolio or no specific client, I do not release my images. My rational is similar to that of Tewfic El-Sawy - it’s just not feasable, or even appropriate sometimes. How do you deal with people who are iliterate? What about child-headed households in Africa? What about plain old language barriers?
Doesn’t this prevent me from selling certain images to certain clients? Yes it does, and I’m ok with that. In the end the question is not “should I get my images released?” it’s “does my intended use or client require that I have a release?” If the answer is yes, then you need releases or you need to change your expectations for the uses of your images.
There’s some good discussion about all this going on these days over at Scott Kelby’s blog, and the input is coming from experts, not just other photographers with opinions. Start HERE.
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Speaking of Scott Kelby - check in on his blog today (Monday), rumour has it he’s making a big announcement about August 23. I’ll recap it once it’s been made public, but you’re going to want to get in on this if you can. Scott’s blog HERE.
I’m glad to see some follow-up on the TP’s post, which I quite enjoyed. I’ve been wondering about this for ages. I’ve been very resistant to using model releases because I don’t intend to use the images for commercial use and not having a model release sort of keeps me honest. I wouldn’t feel right about having absolute free use out of someone’s photo, especially if they’re quite poor. It would feel like exploitation. As it is, I have to donate 50% of any proceeds from print sales to charity to assuage my guilt. Your approach seems like a great compromise.
That said, at a portrait workshop a couple weeks ago, the instructor, who shot documentary and editorial work for many many years, said the world is changing with the Internet, and people are getting more litigious. Apparently someone in Montreal won a case when her picture was published on the cover of a magazine - she said it was defamation. She was sitting on her porch looking pensive, I think.
Hosting the only Canadian location for the Photo Walk project… nice.
Only wish I lived closer