The 'Stolen' Scream: Photographer Discovers His Image Is Everywhere… And Embraces It

from the how-to-do-it dept

loricnet points us to the wonderful story at F-Stoppers called “The Stolen Scream.” It’s done as a video, which you can watch below:

It’s about a photographer Noam Galai, who had posted a photo of himself screaming on Flickr. A few years later, he discovered, much to his own surprise, that the photo was being used all over the place. The photo is on t-shirts, in magazines, on book covers and a variety of other places. But rather than freak out and go ballistic (or legalistic) about it, he went a different route. He embraced it. He started posting an archive of everywhere that he’d seen his own face appear — including as a symbol in the Iranian protests against the government. And then others came and saw the archive and sent in more examples they had seen. So now, he’s set up an entire website, TheStolenScream.com, a blog of all the uses of his image he finds… and (quite smartly) his own store to sell things with the image printed on it.

David Bergman, from F-Stoppers, points out that his first reaction, like many he spoke to, upon hearing this story was to wonder if he was suing anyone, or if he was trying to protect his works. He even notes that he “couldn’t understand” why Noam didn’t seem particularly upset about all of this. And, eventually, he came around to realizing that maybe this wasn’t a bad thing:

There is no way to know for sure but I bet if Noam had watermarked his images from the start, none of this would have happened including the Glimpse Magazine cover. The people that were looking for “free” images online would not have contacted him if his images were watermarked, they would have simply found another image to use. By allowing his images to be public, Noam has gotten to experience something that many artists would give anything for. In my opinion, this experience is worth more than any advertising agency could pay for the image. Noam has made almost no money on these images so far, but I believe the money will come. I know many, if not most of you, will disagree with me but I see Noam’s Stolen Scream as an amazing example of art and the power of technology. I believe everything worked out for the best.

Not only that, but I’d bet people are now a lot more willing to buy all that gear from him directly. First, because of the whole “stolen scream” concept, he’s getting even more attention, and the image is getting additional attention. On top of that, people now know that they can support the original creator directly, something which often drives people to buy. It’s really a great example of how to respond to such a thing. As he says in the video:

This is the thing. Artists like their work to be published and seen by as many people as possible. Usually, when someone paints a nice painting, he wants as many people as possible to see it in museum. I’m not a big fan of people stealing my pictures, but it’s better than not having all those people see my pictures at all. It’s another way to publish my work. It’s not me publishing it, but it’s other people publishing my work for me. If I had taken this picture 20 years ago, the only place it would be is in my room and that’s all. I don’t think anyone would know about this picture.

There’s also a funny bit at the end, where he tried to offer the image via a stock image service, and it was rejected, because the stock photography company claimed there wouldn’t be any interest in that photograph. As Noam says, “I guess they are wrong.”

Of course, we’ve seen this elsewhere as well, but it’s always nice to see yet another example of people realizing that there can be massive benefits to others promoting your work for you. You just have to learn how to embrace it, and set up ways to capture some of that benefit.

Filed Under: copying, noam galai, stolen scream