I discovered Irving Penn's portraits when the NY times did a story on the Getty's acquisition of a series called "The Small Trades". I really like how they showcase individuals in their everyday life and I was especially drawn to the (few) ones of women. In addition to the one below, there is one of two women carrying coal and another of a model. Of the men, I've also seen a fishmonger, and a rag & bone man, and a balloon seller and an outdoor photographer. A small set with a few more are here (and if you can read french I'm curious what the comments are because I think that Penn is being compared to another artist).
They look like the perfect set of photos to frame in a series and hang in the kitchen/dining room. The problem is they seem to be unavailable for purchase outside of art books. Except for this one (which I think is ugly):
Interestingly, some of the art books that are out of print sell for around $150 and up (!). So is it ethical to buy the in print art book and cut the book up to frame the art? On the one hand, it's clearly not what the artist intended since nothing is available in framed art to buy. On the other hand, I own the book, can I not do with it what I want? What about scanning images from the library book and making high quality reproductions since the book is out of print?
Or do I wait and hope that the Getty puts out a series of prints for purchase in the near future? (I'm all for supporting the artist in this... I just can't seem to find anyway to buythe real thing.)
4 comments:
Once you buy it, you can do anything you want with it short of making additional copies (which you wouldn't be doing by cutting up the book and putting it on your wall). It's also legal to cut up an atlas, for instance, and sell the individual maps separately, even if it's a travesty for the historical record.
It's not legal to scan and reprint the pictures (but MP has some pictures that she did that to on her wall, laminated). If the book is out of print then the artist would typically own the copyright, not the publisher, but that doesn't make that much of a difference here.
There's a lot of text, but the main thing at the bottom is that it says that Penn was paying tribute to Eugene Atget. It also says that Penn photographed a porter who was the most tattooed man in Paris; this porter then stabbed someone the next day and the police went to visit Vogue.
PS happy Easter!
they are beautiful pictures, I can see why you would like copies
Yeah and I have a ledge around the top of the kitchen that I think that a set of various sized photos like this would work well in and I like the idea of highlighting the common work - cleaning, food preparation, simple professions - in a place where a lot of common work is done. ANd where I take advantage of people doing common work for me (e.g. I buy butchered meat and baked bread).
Pat, I think I'd most likely scan the pictures that are on the backs of pages that I'm cutting up. I feel guilty about scanning a library book's pictures. Maybe I should order the book and make this a project sometime in April.
Yes, you can cut up the book if you own it and do whatever you want with the pages. I think it would be unethical for you to scan the book and then try to use the photos for commercial purposes or to redistribute them, but I would not worry too much about doing so just to create prints for your own personal use. It might not be perfectly within the copyright restrictions, but it's not something that could really get you into trouble and I don't think it's a reason to feel guilty.
Post a Comment