Photographing publically displayed art
OK. I've tried reading various summaries of copyright law and fair use, but am a bit hazy on a particular application.
I was in St. Louis with my wife visiting her family and we decided to go see an exhibit at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. And it wasn't just any exhibit! Dale Chihuly had setup just a ton of his glass sculptures all throughout the gardens. It was exquisite!
Essentially I took a number of photos which I have sense composed into several pieces of art around my home. Two of the pieces are quite large in particular and always get noticed when we have guests. One of my guests happen to comment he wanted a copy of the piece for his home and offered to pay me handsomely. Herein lies the rub. From what I can tell, the exhibit at the St. Louis BG's was open to the public. Most of the exhibits were outdoors with the glass mixed in with plants or the landscape. Certainly the several thousand people that were there were all taking pictures. Including taking pictures of many pieces that were under traditional glass-case display.
My question is, can an artist photograph another artists work when it is publicly displayed and then sell prints of said photographs?
I do know that at the wiki link for the Gardens, they (the Gardens) are attempting to take down a photo of one of the Chihuly works, but not because of copyright/licensing with Chihuly, but because the Gardens have some restrictions they print on their tickets (which it seems is somewhat untested/load of bull).
Thanks!
Giya
- Edited orig. post to remove weird line breaks.
Hmm, there is a grey area here, and I'm not exactly sure what the answer is.
In your case however, I definately think there should be no problem selling the photo to your guest.
Being that the exhibit was an installation, in which one could walk around and compose images from any amount of views, I believe the photo you took is indeed an artwork on it's own right and should be treated this way. I don't know if there are any real copyright issues behind this, my apologies, but my personal opinion is that yes, you should be able to photograph another artists work and sell said prints, as long as it is made clear that you are not trying to pass the artist's work off as your own.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Yeah, that's what I thought too Jane. I was certainly not the only person there taking photographs and judging by the type of equipment being used by a number of the other photogs, I assumed several of them were pro's.
Certainly selling a copy to my friend is no problem, but my larger issue is that several people have commented I may want to reproduce the piece and sell it at a local art fair or something. At that point I am treading into very different territory. I may have to pick up the phone and call my lawyer. When I get my answer I'll be sure to post a recap.
Yes, please do let us know how it turns out. I am very much interested too. I have tried searching for information about this online but have not had any luck surprisingly.
I am betting that it will be fine. For example, if you take a photo of say, a temple at a tourist location, was that temple not the work of some designer? I'm sure there would be no problems if you printed that and sold it to the public. I suppose in this case, it is an exhibit, but nonetheless, a public one and I would presume the principles are the same.
Good luck with it and I'm looking forward to the outcome!