Vader
February 9th, 2010 by info@alexbrownphotography.com
I’m a professional photographer based in New York and I received the following email I received from a friend today:
“Just thought I would let you know you should be more flattered than pissed off by this but there are artists in London who seemed to have based a project off your Darth Vader mask image.
http://www.artslant.com/ny/main
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/rackroom ”
Littewhitehead installation
Alex Brown's photograph
This photograph was taken by me and first published in The Vice Photo Book 2007 as well as an older issue of Vice magazine. Since then it has been used on gawker.com as well as posted on numerous blogs such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvG48qtQt0E
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/02/sad-vader.html
http://mooiness.com/2007/10/03/sad-vader/
If you Google “Sad Vader” or “Vader kid” you will see just how often my image appears in one form or another on the web.
I guess I should be flattered that someone has created a life size replica of one of my photographs, but I am not happy that they are passing it off as an original concept and that they make no reference to my original photograph. Littlewhitehead are clearly trying to steal what made my photograph so interesting. Any artist with an ounce of creativity would have taken the idea and expanded on it. At the very least, I would have expected them to have the integrity to contact me first and to make some kind of reference to my influence.
(106 votes, average: 4.64 out of 5)
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I think you’ve got a good case, here. It’s a very similar situation to a Jeff Koons infringement that happened years ago. (the one with all the puppies…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_v._Koons ) If you feel the installation/sculpture impinges upon your ability to make money from the photo, what littlewhitehead did was not ‘fair use’ nor satire, and I really don’t think they redefined the inspiration photo enough to be free and clear. You COULD sue them and in fact, I’d look into it. I know, legal proceedings are expensive, but it may not have to go that far. Consult a lawyer. Clearly littlewhitehead has some financial resources, and they can’t seem to think of their own original subject matter. Boo.
The similarities are obvious and I would be incredibly surprised if the installation was not based on your work. I suspect however that since it features a readily available toy worn by a child as it was intended to be worn you might struggle to prove your case. (Never mind the usual Lucas hassles over images.)
Not only has Alex Brown stolen your work, but there’s a whole series of movies called “Star Wars” that have a major character wearing something very similar to that black mask you designed!
Yeah, sorry, there’s not enough original content here to fight over.
Not everything that comes out of a camera is art.
THe installation is not the least flatering. It takes the whole point out of the composition by trying to “explain” it as if the original author had omitted to make his point clear. In doing so, it calls the original work incomplete and claims the right to fulfill it.
There is an anti photography bias building on this site. Those who are part of this trend are fucking idiots.
You have a case for a credit, but there probably isn’t much dough in it. I’d contact them, and the gallery, and I’d tell them that they’ve stolen your image, and that you demand action from them. Let’s see what the little pricks do in return.
i’m not really commenting either way, because it’s damn close and that sucks (and i just stumbled on to this site), but if you did this vader mask thing in 2007, didn’t Chris Buck (Canadian, lives in NYC) do this first-first like 10+ years ago? chrisbuck.com (hp library series, 4/18)
Wowow I am confused. Quit posting the copy before the original. I don’t really see the egregious error here, it’s a different media, if you want credit for the inspiration take it.
This one I think is a little odd. Clearly they swiped your conceptual work, but your own original work is critically reliant on the work of the concept artist and costume designer for Star Wars. In fact, without recontextualizing someone else’s IP, you have NOTHING going on in your piece.
I’m not suggesting it’s the same — Vader’s now part of our culture, where your work is something existing more within the realm of individual expression — but this is definitely a more wrinkly issue than most of the rips posted here.
If it was so important to you, why did you put it in the public domain? Dumbass. You were asking for someone to steal it.
What you and the rest of the whiny babies at youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com (jesus you idiots suck at domain names) don’t get, is if you don’t write your name in marker on your brown paper lunch bag and — PAY ATTENTION HERE — put it in a ***PUBLIC*** FREEZER, anyone is FREE TO EAT IT. If you were too stupid to write your name on your lunch bag, you lose all rights to bitch when someone eats your lunch. This is where an eight-year-old girl would point at you and say, “DuuUUuuUUuuhh!!” Yeah that’s right, a 2nd-grader is smarter than you.
So it’s less “you thought we wouldn’t notice” than “we don’t give a shit if you notice, in fact we hope you do because fuck you legal-illiterate wiki-aspbergers”.
You should have put your fucking name on it you god damn moron! What the fuck is wrong with your head that you can’t connect two neurons in your skulls? As Earnie at EHOWA.com put so eloquently, rub those two lone brain cells in your cavernous skulls and spark a fucking clue!
So shake off the butthurt, self-righteous emo faggotry, take a step back, accept that ***YOU*** FUCKED UP, learn from this experience and DON’T FUCKING DO IT AGAIN.
P.S. Thank you, Internet, for bringing together so many high-creativity, low-intelligence and low-wisdom cocktards. These derp-derp jackasses have stupidly created a vast, UNDEFENDED resource of art for anyone to FREELY plunder.
And they’re actually surprised that leaving a thousand freshly-baked pies on hundreds of window sills attracts even more hobos? Or frying up a mountain of steaks in the middle of a forest pulls in every single wolf, bear, and cougar in a 20-mile radius?
ARE THESE FUCKERS SERIOUS??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!! OOOOOH HO HO HO HO HO HA HA HA HA HA HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HO HO HO HO HO HAAA HAAAA HAAAA!!! Oh my sides! Their braindead absurdity is killing me……..
Tough words from someone that will never, in their lives create anything of value.
I wonder if Chris Buck shot this before or after seeing your darth vader shot?
http://www.imaginarydesign.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/chris-buck2.png