My Photos, My Work

Tonight, I was supposed to cover a concert by a fairly well-known American jazz guitarist for a magazine I work for. However, I eventually chose not to.

The specific names and locations are not important because what makes this story interesting is its paradigmatic explanation of a very common attitude in event photography: tour managers trying to parasite the photographers’ work.

The magazine’s editor-in-chief had asked the local tour manager to allow an accredited photographer to be present. He didn’t respond until yesterday, only doing so after being contacted again. So far, so good. It’s not unusual when touring the world to respond to such requests a few hours before the concert starts.

However, the response was unsettling: yes, you can send the photographer and publish the photos, but we want the photos first and you can’t use them for commercial purposes.
In other words, they were asking for my photos for free while preventing the magazine from publishing them. After all, the magazine is a business, so making the pictures available on its website would also be a business usage — hence forbidden.

Apart from the contradictory statement about what business usage was supposed to mean, I was amazed at how brazen-faced this people were when asked to be given my photos.

Of course, they are free to chose how to run their business, but I am free not to accept their terms. And since I couldn’t think of a single reason why I should have agreed to give out my photos for free, I have decided not to go.

The sun will rise again tomorrow, and I don’t think my absence will affect the artist’s life or finances. That doesn’t mean, however, that one should not respect oneself and one’s profession. I have noted the name of the agency so that next time I will save time by not considering going to see any of the artists in their portfolio perform.