The Value of Photos

I’ve wanted to write about this subject before, but it kept sliding down my to-do list until this article showed up and sort of stated my point without realizing it. Photos aren’t valued. Let’s talk about the case described in that article for a moment and get a couple of things out of the way. A painter is accused of “copying” a photograph to make a work of art. Specifically a photograph of the Gallegher brothers of the rock band Oasis interacting. The usual claim of the painter is that it isn’t a violation of Copyright to do so, it’s Fair Use, a very specific aspect of the Copyright law that encourages public dissemination of derivative works in particular ways, typically educational, though not limited to that. You should read the Petapixel article, as it has details that I won’t be repeating here. Form your own opinion, and then come back here to see where I went with the same information. The thing that struck me wasn’t the “copying,” it was the value. First, the painter here did…