Taking Pictures
Clockwise, From Top Left:
LISA ERF Lonesome (Yes) 1990
oil on two canvases, 11 x 13" framed
COUNTRY LIFE
various bound volumes including 1904 (partial year)
PAUL JASMIN
Portrait of Jensen, Los Angeles 2008
Photograph, 13 x 10"
MARIE YOUNGBLOOD
Portrait of a Young Man, undated, signed
charcoal and pencil
Photographed by the author,
Los Angeles, May 23, 2009
Collection of the author
We were talking the other day about copyright, and pirates, and stealing, and who an image belongs to.
A friend goes to an exhibition in London and takes pictures with his cell phone, posts them on FaceBook.
Two-Faced Book, Jeffrey calls it, but everyone goes on to see anyway.
An image of an image. A copy of a movie? Well. That's different.
How would you like it if someone downloads your book and then just gives it away.
Please. I should be so lucky.
It's stealing.
But I know these people. I know these artists. I own these things.
They're things; objects, they belong to me; they're images.
I go for a walk this afternoon with Bianca and Lily. It's so warm the cherry trees and magnolias have blossomed in January. They're too early, Bianca says. What will they do when it gets cold again.
They'll die, is what I say. And then start over.
I take out my iPhone.
Oh yes, says Bianca, seeing what I'm seeing and reading my mind. Take that. Take a picture of that.
It's taking, isn't it. It really is taking in every sense. After all, it's their magnolia tree, not mine. In their yard.
Take it. Before you lose the light.
Take it.
Good thing titles cannot be copyrighted. I did hear, however, that blogs also cannot be copyrighted. Things that make you go, hmmm.
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I forgot to mention in my last comment just a few minutes ago that six months ago I knew nothing about the blogosphere so I took a blogging 101 class from Gotham Writer's Workshop, and the instructor is the one who informed me that blogs can't be copyrighted. Ironically, however, her blog site had a copyright symbol on it, perhaps to steer away people from reposting her material without asking. Definitely bizarre, if you ask me. As I also said, feel free to repost any material from my site. I did recently post a funny video from Family Guy about the struggle involved in writing. Check it out if you get a chance. Any time you want to promote traffic to my site, I sure could use the help. I'm trying to build a platform for when I have a novel completed to promote.
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