a peek inside the fishbowl

1 | Kimusan

June 15th, 2010 at 7:21 pm

Well, *technically* the photos are protected by a 50-year copyright if they’re attached to a studio. Some printing companies will overlook it, but I actually had some trouble reproducing a photo of my grandparents (even though the photographer had long-since died, and the photoshop no longer existed back in Manitoba.)

But that’s not at all a fun answer.

2 | andrea

June 15th, 2010 at 7:26 pm

Hmm. No. Not fun at all.

So if my friend somehow became the beneficiary of a negative scanner and the photos were reproduced and published on a website, say, to help track down the owners of the photos, that would be bad, right? And breaking copyright?

3 | Gary Champagne

June 15th, 2010 at 7:29 pm

I would feel comfortable in picking the box up for starters. Leaving it in place in the open is a disaster waiting to happen. Next, I would try to contact the studio to verify if it is still around or not. If not, and I cannot track down an owners name to contact, I would then maybe try visiting a store or two nearby where the box was found to a) leave a contact #, and b) see if I could have them post a small sign in the window for a week or so. If still nothing, I would then consider the content. I might be inclined to target anything of significant value or risk an make attempts to contact ppl. In general, before doing anything further, I would wait another 2-3 months. Afterwards, the shredder gets what’s left.

4 | bushidoka

June 15th, 2010 at 7:34 pm

You could scan a few and post them here

http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/

5 | bushidoka

June 15th, 2010 at 7:35 pm

Oh, the studio part. If you know that already – I dunno.

6 | Shannon

June 15th, 2010 at 8:24 pm

I’m not sure I’d take the time and effort to scan them etc. but I did find a box of photos at the dump one time and I took it home and looked through them all, reading the captions on the back. It made me sad to think that someone had just tossed all those old memories and where were all the people now.

7 | Kimusan

June 15th, 2010 at 8:36 pm

For the record, I say you scan and post a few. But maybe in tangent, send an email to the studio. Who knows? Posting a few might be the only way to find the owners.

8 | betsy mae

June 15th, 2010 at 10:01 pm

i’d say try to contact the studio for sure. gary has a good idea to visit the stores in the area (or homes) to ask about the box and why it was wherever it was found. then i’m not too sure. depending on how much effort and energy this person wants to put into finding the owner, perhaps start tracking down people by the contact info in the box? but then what???? imagine 20 yrs after getting your portrait taken you receive a phone call from someone in a different city, asking you if you know anything about a box of portraits?

9 | Lily

June 15th, 2010 at 11:18 pm

Well I mentioned it on twitter (Hi by the way) but I would totally look at the photos and start a blog or weekly post with the pictures in it. I would write a short made up story about each family (or whoever is in the pic) and what is going on in their lives that lead them to the studio. You know those pained smiles that kids get, or the eye roll they manage to catch half way, or even the cheese perfect family. Just a little taste of fictional life. Then at the end of the post add: Do you know these people? If so please have them contact me. If anyone ever contacts you give them the original back and ask if you can do a side by side, with a then and now shot and put the real story of what was happening when those photos were taken.
Just a thought.

10 | Marla

June 16th, 2010 at 6:43 am

Craigslist & Kijiji postings to inquire.

Then, Sexy People: http://www.sexypeople-blog.com/*

And maybe see if a local newspaper will do a small feature on such a thing, and that might help people to reclaim it.

Also remembering that a busy person like your friend who is very kind and wonderful also can’t always be responsible for the ultimate destination of everything, and even your um…friend’s… desire to be creative with them ought not to surpass other equally valid but longer-standing creative ideas that also haven’t been acted upon in favour of the novelty.

And didn’t this happen once before?

*maybe I’m kidding about that part.

11 | Nat

June 16th, 2010 at 6:47 am

Ooooooh how exciting!

I love things like this…

12 | Jay

June 16th, 2010 at 7:13 am

Was the studio name attached to the negs as well as the box? What if the box with the studio name disappeared and they were just a bunch of negatives in an unmarked box?!?!

13 | andrea

June 16th, 2010 at 5:47 pm

My friend tells me the name of the studio is on practically every envelope in the box. And that it was found in a residential neighbourhood quite some time ago, so advertising in a Lost and Found sort of way would be moot.

My friend feels bad about the potential fate of these photos. After all, it is PEOPLE we’re talking about here.

How would you feel if someone found your photos at the side of the road?

I like Lily’s idea of creating fictional lives. Hmm. Must think on this some more.

14 | Littlehouse

June 16th, 2010 at 10:06 pm

I love the creative ideas, but little alarm bells do go off about privacy, and copyright….

15 | DW

June 20th, 2010 at 8:21 pm

Photographic copyright is tricky:

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ShowDoc/cs/C-42/bo-ga:l_I::bo-ga:l_II//en?page=2&isPrinting=false&noCookie#codese:13-ss:_2_

To boil it down, copyright is 50 years from the date that the photography is taken (not 50 years from the death of the photographer). 1980’s would still be covered.

Second, in general the photographer generally owns the copyright of their photos, unless it was a taken as commissioned work (which one might argue portraits are). Photography and engraving for whatever reason have this exception. Now most contracts will specify that copyright is assigned to the photographer anyway but without the contract its hard to know.

As for the privacy concerns, that is handled under several different laws but in general as long as you publish a photo with no defamation of character you are OK (ie a photo unedited, no snarky caption to go with it). Of course a model release form is always best. A good collection of laws is found here (note that Quebec might be handle slightly differently):

http://ambientlight.ca/laws.php

Though that really only applies to publishing your own photos, publishing photos that someone else owns should be OK as well, though you could run afoul of copyright.