adminStephen Garan’anga Visual Art
I would like you to imagine the following scenario. A business person calls a plumber and asks the plumber to do some work for free because it “will be good advertising and experience”.
The plumber is young, just out of trade school, and not entirely confident in his abilities yet. He also is new at running a business, so agrees to do the work for free.
Now, take the same story and replace the plumber with a lawyer, an auto mechanic, an accountant, a hairdresser or a chef. It’s a pretty silly story, isn’t it? It would never happen to these individuals because they would not allow themselves to be taken advantage of in that manner. They all have specialised training and experience and they know that their work has value. None of them would stay in business very long if they constantly donated their talents, skills, time and work for free.
This is not advocating against helping out good causes or contributing to needy non-profit organisations, but in my experience in the visual arts I have encountered so many requests for “free” work it suggests to me that we don’t value art or artists very much. Does anyone think that all types of workers and professionals are regularly asked to work for free? When was the last time you asked your dentist to work for free? How about the chef who prepares your restaurant meals? But visual artists are regularly asked and expected to work for free.
Artists have done their share of free art and design work for many years. They have often sold artworks for a pittance. Its high time artists decided that their work, their training, their talent and their time have value and should be treated accordingly. Many times when they do art or design work for free, most “clients” treat both the artists and their work as if were worthless. Never forget the old saying “you get what you pay for”. There is an irrational but widely accepted psychology to this – people want something for nothing, but at the same time, they value things that cost a lot of money.
Many visual artists live and die in poverty because they are not inclined to attend to the business aspects of their craft. It is surprising how many visual artists work for free simply because someone asks them to do so, saying: “please donate your artwork/your time/your talent for free, it will give you good exposure”.
Even though studies show that the visual arts add huge sums of money to economies, there is a pervasive attitude in the world at large that art is of little value and basically worthless. If you disagree with this, just look at the funding and support that arts education receives in public schools. Many see art as a frivolous and unimportant activity.
Is it any wonder that artists are constantly asked to work for free? Is it any wonder that when artists are paid for their work, they are usually happy to get a few dollars thrown their way?”
Even when artists are paid for their work, it is often a nominal pittance. There are many reasons why this happens, one of which is that many artists are creative souls who care more about beauty, colour, ideas and creativity than about the almighty dollar. Another reason is that many artists have deep seated inferiority complexes regarding the value of their own work. Another reason is that artists are often not “bottom line oriented”, if they were that type of person they would have become bankers, accountants and business people.
You might ask what any of this has to do with visual copyright. Since the dawn of the graphical web browser in 1994 which gave the ability to copy, paste and download digitised artwork and photos, hundreds of thousands of visual artists find themselves working for free, whether on purpose or inadvertently.
Their work is downloaded, used, remixed, collaged, referenced, plagiarised, cherry picked, and sold for profit all without attribution, without permission, and without credit.
Artists like free culture as much as the next person, but it hurts to see individual artists, photographers and illustrators abused, especially when those artists are often well trained and well educated, having spent years perfecting their craft. The free culture argument is essentially the same approach as those who say to artists: “you’re a visual artist so you will work for free, right?”
By learning some basic sensible business practices and by knowing their rights, artists are empowered and gain the ability to advocate for their own best interests. The next time you are asked to work for free or sign away your rights to an image think about that plumber!
Consider obtaining knowledge on the business of being a visual artist or take a course on how to manage your visual arts career to your advantage. Most artists would do well to have a few simple business documents on hand, including a model release and an image licensing agreement.
And before you place your artwork on the internet, think about your rights and perhaps add a copyright symbol to your work. It’s no guarantee of protection for your work, but it’s better than nothing.
Online Reporter