Last night on the EDM Photographers Facebook group a member posted a tweet from an upset photographer who wasn't properly credited for an image that famed music producer, Diplo, posted on his Instagram feed. The concert photography collective, Visualbass, tweeted their irritation to Diplo about the uncredited photo and was met with a rather unpleasant and public exchange from the artist.
[UPDATE 12/12/13 I have been in contact with Visualbass and have added a few quotes in the article]
Before I get into this article let me first explain to some of the readers who may not know this particular genre of music very well exactly who Diplo is. Diplo or Thomas Wesley Pentz is an American producer and DJ. He is best known for his EDM group Major Lazer. He has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music (Beyoncé, No Doubt, Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, and Santigold). He produced the Grammy nominated song "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. and has a new track with Sia and The Weeknd on the new Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack. The man is a big player in the music industry and it's safe to say that he is the future of mainstream pop music. He even has his own Blackberry commercial and has modeled for fashion designer Alexander Wang.
The photography collective Visualbass was granted a press pass to the Mad Decent Block Party in Toronto (Mad Decent is owned by Diplo) to shoot on behalf of the blog ThisSongSlaps.com. When shooting at the show the photographer didn't sign a copyright grabber or contract giving their copyrights away, although other photographers present at the concert did. The photographer was allowed photo pit access and took some pretty killer photos of the event, but when Diplo posted the photo on his Instagram the photographer took to twitter to express his disappointment.
"Thissongslaps.com approached me to shoot this Block Party at Fort York. My agreement with the blog was that they leave my watermark on and they'll get selected pics free of charge. I was given a media pass at the gate but not a AAA [All Access] pass and there was no contract of any sort to sign when I got the pass. I was able to go into the media pit and everywhere else but NOT BACK STAGE, but I snuck back there anyways because I had a lot of friends who are artists and I just wanted to say hi." - Tobias Wang (owner/photographer Visualbass)
An artist that doesn't credit a photographer isn't anything new, in fact, it's a huge problem in our industry. The majority of concert photographers don't make enough to have concert photography as their main niche in photography. The majority of the time we pay out of pocket to be there, to shoot for a venue, promoter or even the artist themselves. So, when a successful artist who at that point should understand the idea of copyright laws should know that it stings when others use your work without proper due credit. I find the whole situation quite ironic in a way that an artist who values his intellectual property rights would devalue ours. At this point I'm not entirely blaming Diplo though since the photo wasn't actually uploaded by him personally, but by his management team. (Looks like his management team needs a little lesson on properly crediting photographers.) It's his very public reaction to the tweet that caught us (EDM photographers) off guard.
"WTF?!, was my initial reaction but it wasn't the first time he's done this. I wasn't even mad when I saw he'd instagrammed the post I just re-instagrammed it with my comment. I attached a screengrab of our conversation via Facebook in July where he blatantly said 'totally stealing for my twitter thanks!' referencing to this image from that same party : http://visualbass.com/products/diplo-11x11in-print and as you can see from the screengrab that I was actually cool with it simply because he said thanks at the end of comment. So I was a little sad that he didn't bother to credit me and that he cropped out the watermark." - Tobias Wang (owner/photographer Visualbass)
In two simple sentences Diplo completely devalues the hard work that we as photographers do. Those of us that do this legitimately (whether it's shooting for press, the artist, venue or promoter) are there not because we want the thrill of being backstage. We're not all groupies with DSLRs running around backstage hoping for a chance to speak to the artist. No, we're there because we belong there. We are providing a service to whoever our client may be. Instead of quietly dealing with the situation and removing the photo or adding credit he completely dismisses the photographer altogether.
This disappointed me a great deal being that Diplo/Major Lazer is one of my favorite artists to not just listen to, but shoot. I have had the pleasure of shooting his EDM group Major Lazer twice in my career as the house photographer for a national-level promoter. All I can say is that Diplo and his crew put on one hell of a show. As a professional concert photographer it's hard to NOT get a good photo of Diplo if you have some decent access. The level of interaction with the crowd is insane. While Major Lazer have used my photos without personal credit to me, it wasn't so much of a deal to me since I was paid by the promoter for this exact purpose. It would have been a nice gesture though. I do love it when a major artist takes the time to give me proper credit, like in the past with Showtek and Steve Aoki, who actually tagged me in each individual image they posted on various social media sites. That is what I call mutual respect for the art that we produce.
"The funny thing is that most people in this world don't care about how a photograph is made especially in a club. The biggest misconception about clubscape photographs and photographers is that what they do is not hard. Digital photography did not help that reputation and neither did smartphones. I've been shooting since 1999 and worked a lot with artists throughout my career. It used to be a lot easier to contact the artist and managements because there wasn't a lot of photographers, but now it is nearly impossible to get a hold of anyone because of all the white noise that social media causes.
Artist management like that are ignorant and lazy. This simply exemplifies the lack of integrity as a company and their roster." -Tobias Wang (owner/photographer Visualbass)
In a surprising social media twist people have stood behind Visualbass and took to defending him against the artist. Which is a pleasant change in which usually fans will defend the artist and their behavior till the bitter end.
After a few more exchanges between Diplo and his twitter followers VisualBass tweets a retort that flips the tables dramatically.
While the condescending tone of Diplo's tweets are disheartening for photographers and videographers at best, he's right. (On a side note when I shot the Major Lazer concerts I was, in fact, the only official photographer shooting for the promoter along with one other photographer shooting for Eyewax.TV for UME 2013. There were only a handful of press photogs there. The other concert, Isla Del Sol, I shot solo along with a videographer, no press was allowed. There was not a large number of photographers at either concert.)
VisualBass has been reportedly selling non-limited and unsigned $2 "posters" of Diplo, along with a slew of other mainstream artists since July. Most photographers wouldn't give a second thought to putting up a photo that they took at a concert for sale in the form of a print, but knowing from recent conversations with famed DJ photographer Drew "Rukes" Ressler from Rukes.com that simply taking the photo doesn't necessarily give you the right to sell it as a print. In Rukes's F.A.Q. he answers the question on why his prints are very limited.
"The prints are limited since copyright law limits the amount of prints a photographer can make. If you go over that certain amount, the prints become “merchandise” and must be licensed in accordance with the artist pictured."- Drew "Rukes" Ressler
Photo by: Rukes
So, this presents a good question. If I take a photo of an artist at a concert and own my full copyrights can I sell prints of my work? The answer to this has been notoriously grey in nature due to legal jargon and confusion between concert photographers, but the short answer is... yes, with strict limitations. Let me break down on how U.S. Copyright handles fine art prints.
US Copyright (excerpts):
A “work of visual art” is —
(2) a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only, existing in a single copy that is signed by the author, or in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author.
A work of visual art does not include —
(A)(i) any poster, map, globe, chart, technical drawing, diagram, model, applied art, motion picture or other audiovisual work, book, magazine, newspaper, periodical, data base, electronic information service, electronic publication, or similar publication;
(ii) any merchandising item or advertising, promotional, descriptive, covering, or packaging material or container;
In layman's terms you can sell prints of an artist (or rather anybody) as long as they are limited to an edition that only includes 200 copies or less, are signed and consecutively numbered by the photographer. Usually fine art prints are somewhat expensive compared to normal prints, printed with high-quality paper and will explicitly state that it is a fine art or gallery print. If it doesn't follow these guidelines it no longer falls under a limited edition print, but rather commercial merchandise, and you must either have a model release from the artist or work out a licensing deal with them. You must also own the full copyrights to the image in question. The majority of concert photographers are forced to sign their copyrights away just to gain access to an artist which is a travesty in itself. That topic is for another article.
It's unclear if VisualBass is breaking any copyright laws by selling the posters, since the company resides in Canada (where the photos were shot) and they state that they never signed any sort of copyright grabber or contract with the promoter or artist. I'm going to assume by the price and the unsigned and unnumbered nature of the posters that this hardly falls under the definition of a fine art print and that Diplo is correct in stating that they are using his likeness commercially. The only time that Visualbass says that the posters are actually limited-edition prints are in a Tumblr post marketing their posters. Then again, I'm no intellectual property lawyer.
I want to end this with the unfortunate truth that some artists in the music industry just do not respect what we do. All of the hours we put into shooting, editing, the small to no compensation, and the under-appreciation can eventually disillusion you as a concert photographer. That doesn't mean we don't love what we do. I personally loved shooting Diplo and getting the chance to make him look like the rockstar that he is, because in essence that's what we do. We capture the artist in the best possible light to help promote themselves. I just wish that big artists would have enough common sense to see that the true professional photographers in this industry deserve respect just as much as they do.
To close the article I want to publish some of the best photographs of Diplo that were captured by members of my EDM Photography group, EDM Photographers. We are the largest collective of EDM photographers on social media, and I'm proud to say that we have the best of the best in the group. I want to thank those that submitted their photos for this article. You can also view the entire set from the Mad Decent Block Party by Visualbass on their Facebook Page.
All photos used with permission.
Photo by: Avi Raz
Photo by: Lucid Light Photography
Photo by: Shea Flynn (Da Black Swan)
Photo by: ClutchPro-Vids
Photo by: Calder Wilson
Photo by: Rodolfo Lamaestra
Photo by: Joeri Swerts
Photo by: Adam Oles
Photo by: Dustin 'Hollywood' Thornton
Photo by: Robert Underwood
Photo by: Roger Ho
Photo by: Chiara Gerek
Photo by: Bethany Rees
Photo by: Nick Ford
Photo by: Wrenn Okada
Photo by: Jorge Meza Photography
Photo by: Tyler Hill
Photo by: Chadwick Morris
Photo by: John Bolen
Photo by: Mantas Ivanauskas
Photo by: Luis Villalobos (Da Black Swan)
Photo by: Christina Kuhlmann
Photo by: Eric Fehringer
Photo by: Oh Dag Yo
If you used his music without permission, he'd have his lawyers all over that. You would think that a fellow artist would understand that a photo isn't free to make.
wheres their instruments?
As a young photographer in the business it's truly sad how many times I've been screwed over like this and just in general while dealing with edm management crews. Great little article, but unfortuntely it's just going to keep getting worse I think :/
It's almost like the DJs and Artists think we're there for fun or because we love them. I don't know about you guys but most of the time shooting shows I rarely even "hear" the music because I'm busy working or trying to fight past waves of drunk, drugged up and annoying fans.
I have to admit it's true, sometimes I have to force myself to put my camera down for a few short seconds just to hear and appreciate the music, but alas to professionals in the industry it's a job, not a party.
I worked for an big EDM festival this year- not as photographer, but as a driver for the DJs. Several travelled with photographers or videographers, and any time there was more than one artist in my vehicle, they were busy showing each other pictures and videos of sets. One sentiment I heard from many of the DJs that weekend: "you could have put on the best show ever, but if there aren't pictures to show, it may as well not happened". The EDM genre is tied very closely to photography and videography. Diplo is a douche.
Yeah, cause what's the point in enjoying music at a really great gig unless you can look at pictures of it a few days later.
Excellent point. Totally agree with you.
Awesome article with great information provided. Having been in the same room with Dip a few times (years before Major Lazer and M.I.A., I can assure you he is truly as much of a D-bag as we are to believe. It's a shame how much our respect for talented artists can dwindle to nothing because of the attitudes possessed by their arrogance.
I did concert photography for a while, and for some well known bands. The pics definitley opened the door to other PAYING opportunities. So thats good. But I never want to work in concert photography again. I DONT CARE who the act is. Besides the fact its non paying for the most part, which did not bother me at the time. The Bands, management and their lawyers treat you like a living piece of crap. Even if your photos are great. They think you should be so honored by them allowing you to take their picture, you should be willing to give them all rights for free. Even if you did, they still look at you like a piece of crap, and treated you that way as well. They literally look at photographers as worthless. I work as a commercial photographer shooting cars full time, and I deal with all types of personalities, and some can be jerks. But concert photography is the worst of the worst area of photography to work in.
Who?
Wow, Diplo is seriously not living PLUR. Hope he loses a lot of money for being a d-bag!
I love how you guys posted tons of photos...with credits!!
Good on ya!
print era = piracy
digital era = sharing
get used to it
I still don't understand why photographers work for free unless it's for a noble and personal cause( and I still get paid since everyone working on the charity does also)
Such conduct from a human (diplo) has to be expected since when you don't pay for a service, you sure don't value or respect that service. I wouldn't offer any service for people who don't value or respect our art.
I see the same conduct of non respect when photographers don't want to pay their assistant or second shooters. Don't be mad if they don't show up. They have absolutely nothing to gain short term.
My .02
"The man is a big player in the music industry and it’s safe to say that he is the future of mainstream pop music"… We're screwed then aren't we.
Quit beating around the bust.
Diplo = Dips**t
ask me anything.. but please be nice
Thanks for posting, Thomas! Does this article change the way you'll work with photographers in the future in any way?
Great question, one that all us EDM photographers are wondering!
like i said I've worked on collars with photographers direct, but mostly they are hired and I'm not interested in finding any new ones if you guys all hate me..
We don't hate you. I think the fact that the comments here compared to other blogs that have covered this are for the most part cordial and are trying to show you respect as a fellow artist. Of course there's a few negative ones, but that's just the internet for you.
I can say that the discussion in the EDM Photographers group shifted dramatically from you failing to credit over to the concern of selling prints of your likeness. We want to be fair and professional in our trade. We just were surprised over the tone of your tweets.
I do not condone what Visualbass did with the prints of you and other artists, but we do deserve to be credited without an artist having a sense of entitlement over our intellectual property. Honestly if management teams were better trained over how to handle content things would be a lot better.
I think a lot of artists, promoters and venues fail to see that quality trumps quantity every time. Sure, you could hire some rich kid that got a DSLR for Christmas from Mommy and Daddy, but would the photos be any good? Doubtful.
We just want to understand where the outburst came from and if you really feel that way about all of us.
Hi,
Before I begin I am going to go on good faith and am going to assume that the account you are using is legitimate.
I know it can be frustrating as an artist or as an artist's management team to have to worry daily about where new content will be coming from to keep your image in the limelight. That's where we as photographers come in. We come in all shapes and sizes with different level of expertise, but we all have one purpose, to make you look amazing while you are preforming, or for marketing purposes (studio shoots, music video shoots etc...).
Sure there are a large portion of photographers/videographers who show up with their DSLRs just to gain access to artists like you. We as professional photographers don't look too kindly to people who do this. It is a problem in the concert photography industry, but please we ask that you don't confuse the true professionals to these types of photographers. We do work very hard with little to no compensation to make you look good. Why? Because we love what we do. Because we love your music.
All we ask is the same mutual respect that we give you as an artist. Properly crediting a photographer for their hard work shows that you care about where you get your content from and that you're grateful for the services that we provide for you.
As I said in the article I have shot you twice and it was a pleasure both times. I hope that I'll be able to have the opportunity to shoot for Major Lazer again, because I truly am a fan, but more importantly I am an EDM Photographer who loves her job, and the industry that we work for.
On that note I will also defend your right to have your likeness used in the proper way. Selling merch and mass prints without a licensing agreement or a model release from you is wrong and isn't the way most of us do business. As Drew (Rukes) says above limited signed edition prints are okay, but anything outside of that scope is for you to approve.
Two wrongs don't make a right and I hope I showed that in the article. Either way I appreciate you being here to answer questions from the readers.
thanks for responding!
A lot of times artists find photos on Instagram, Facebook Pages, or blogs that have been previously cropped by another party. It's realistic to think if you like the photo, you would still share it. No one expects you to hunt down the photographer on the internet if you have no idea.
Were you aware of who took the photo beforehand? Was not giving credit just an oversight and something you weren't thinking about at the time or didn't care to credit?
Mistakes are made by everyone. I was more concerned with your response rather than if lack of credit had been an oversight. Looking back, would you have changed your initial response?
Seems pretty typical of an artist to be honest.. Anyways.. I have never heard of this guy, maybe ill head over to PirateBay and check him out...
Hey Diplo.
As an up and coming photographer who only has a few regular artists as clients, the obligatory credit/watermark isn't because we need some self gratifying thing, or to become "famous" in our own right. For me its entirely because as a "starving artist" (hate using that term), if the work and name is memorable, the industry people that follow you, since you are a power house in your field, could see and hire us.
I think educating the management teams, as well as having a bit more empathy towards artistic creatives.
Just like me knowing how to play chop sticks on a piano doesn't make me a professional musician, knowing how to push a button on the top of a camera doesn't make someone a professional at what we do.
At this point will you be crediting professional photo and video (when-able) or having your team who handles social media?
to think i spend time cutting off watermarks or trying to hide the identity of a photographer seems insane….
Hey Dip,
That sounds malicious and I certainly wasn't implying you are anyway like that.
Nor should you have to go out of your way to credit every photo you come across. You're an international artist and I am sure 40,000 photos get taken of you every month. I think people were upset less about the no credit (i speak for myself) and more about the response that sounded like a very harsh idgasof.
I have much respect for you as an artist and was just a bit disappointed in the response.
Why are you so full of yourself Dippy?
I'm sorry if it seems that way.. i never act egotistical on purpose but i do love a good fight, never one to back down.
Great response to a knuckle headed question!
Hey Diplo, thanks for stepping up.
Q: Has your work ever been used without due credit, and assuming so, how did it make you feel?
it happens all the time..
time and time again .. maybe daily..
i dont dwell on the work that get abused i try and promote the great work that does get attention. Even in the music industry I'm a small fish to pop producers.. many times my sounds or ideas are recreated for a mass audience (beyonce - "run the world" for instance..) it wouldn't do me any good to attack these people, i just keep on doing better work because these situations inspire me.
Diplo...very cool of you to respond!
My question:
Do you see our work (photography) as an art? Do you feel we deserve to get paid for our art as you do for yours (never mind the disparities in pay, just paid in general)?
Someone had bashed DJs for not being artists...I defended you as an artist (and I'm an old school rocker!). I'm just curious if you feel the same about us?
Thanks...you're a real stand up man for taking on this challenge!
i get paid because sometimes I'm in demand.. i expect photography is the same. like i said there are some that have done work with for over 10 years.. they do great work for me and i don't have to worry about them being malicious towards me
How many stars are there in our universe?
just one .. its you
Hey Dippy. I just stole all your music off of youtube. How would you like me to credit you. I was thinking douchebag.
yo regardless of whats happening i think its important to say that diplo has actually come to my defense at a show before when another djs tour manager tried to give me a hard time....
"Ask me anything..." just don't expect a response. Hmm.
i dont understand the question
I bet this is how diplo feels right now about photogs
God I love that meme and that we have a sense of humor in the group. LMAO.
The real question is, has anyone informed Wayne Coyne that Diplo is stealing his schtick with the human hamster-ball and the smoke?!?
Rebecca, quite frankly i am stoked that you got diplo's attention on this article. In reality, copy rights and creative property are things that he and the rest of the music industry (mgmt/pr) should be familiar with and recognize. although he is a human and its his personality he is quite the self entitled little booger and i hope that him as well as other artists in the industry understand that a link back to website or full name written below the photo will due. thanks for taking the time to publish this. much appreciated. great photos!
Awesome article. As a fan, and photographer I took this kinda personally. Some of my business partners photos are pictured above. I wasn't thrilled when I saw that you(assuming) clipped the watermark and posted the photo, but that happens all the time and it's not a huge deal. What I bad an issue with was the response to the photographer. The article pretty much touches on most of my issues but the biggest thing is that so few people respect the work that goes into photographing a show like this. Your show is one of my favorites to shoot because of the amount of effort put into putting on a great show. I just kinda figured it worked both ways, at least to a degree. As someone who shoots shows as my main source of income it's disheartening. I know it could have been handled better by the photographer as well. I do think it's awesome that you stepped up on this blog to discuss it.
Unfortunately not being credited does happen a lot , especially with newspapers ( ive had many photographs go uncredited with AFP ) surprised that his attitude was so bad , maybe from now on all photographs will be edited so only pics of him pulling a weird face will be used ( just a thought ) haha ....... and btw , i have never heard of him....
This is why I love Fstoppers.com Thanks for this article Rebecca. I hope this will help musicians and other artists to understand what we do with them and for them - same freaking art. It's cool for Diplo to check out the article too. Everybody started from scratch eh, hard work and all, we all have to remember that.
So no I won't forget to ask for a contract/agreement first every time.
HE made it public, SUE HIM, AND YOU WIN!
Dear Diplo, you are a douche. Also, I have no idea who you are.
So was Visualbass hired by Diplo, I mean with a contract? If not is there any obligation to credit the owner of whats already publicly shared on the internet ?? What is the difference here between best practice and each countries laws?