Recently, I talked with Sam Abell who wrote a wonderful book, The Life of a Photographer – Sam Abell, published by National Geographic. See my review and my conversation with Sam. During our conversation, Sam mentioned a YouTube video covering an interview he did, Photographer Sam Abell talks about Richard Prince who stole his work.
In this case Sam talks about a photo he did for a Marlboro ad. Richard Prince, the so-called artist, took the image, stripped out the text and made an edition of two copies, selling them for several million dollars. Sam gave up rights to the ad agency when he did the photo. There is also some law that photos used in ads can be then used for other things. The ad agency has tried to sue William Prince unsuccessfully as he stole a number of their photos for his personal gain.
Sam’s picture was also on the cover of a Guggenheim Museum catalog giving Richard Prince credit for Sam’s photo. Sam pointed out that this was his work but his work would never appear in a major art museum because of the bias against photojournalism. Instead someone can copy his work, make millions off it, and have major museums display it. I think this is a dark moment for the Guggeheim. Richard Prince deserves a special place in artist hell for his exploitation. The idiots who paid millions for his work deserve a special place of honor as fools and they owe Sam a lot for his rightful work. Sam is rightfully amazed that Richard Prince can live with himself. Sam and I were taught that acts like this were immoral. Here you can see a bit of what Richard is doing with his ill gotten gain.
This is yet another reason why I often don't want to get involved with the "art scene." Too much blood & filth.
Posted by: Lana | October 18, 2008 at 10:04 PM