Photography and Plagiarism
If you are a photographer, don’t be naive to think your creative work is protected and stays with
you.
Because soon there will be another photographer who will imitate your work and claim
it as their own creative work.
They either seem to have no concept of the intellectual property right, or they
simply do not care about it.
I have been publishing my photography on the internet providing technical information
about them. I believed by providing technical information, other photographers might benefit from it conducting studies
and experiments, and develop it into their own creative works. But I never thought
someone would post an imitation work and claim an award for it.
Saturday morning in March 2011, when I opened my copy of “Black+White Photography”
magazine, I thought I saw my own work printed in it. But it turned out to be a work
by Marek Troszczynski, shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards 2011 in
the Architecture Category.
I produced my work “Fisheye lens - Natural History Museum in London” back in 2008
and it has since been in public domain. I published it on my website “www.photo-visible.com”
in the same year, where it has since been viewed more than 28,000 times by visitors.
The picture was also published in the “Amateur Photographer” magazine in May
2009 and in the “Digital SLR User Magazine” in June 2010.
The National History Museum has existed for a long time, but we have never had such
two similar photography works till now.
If his work is not an imitation of my work then the plagiarism does not exist, and
we are living in a society ignoring your creativity and creativity has no value.
22 March 2011
Below added on 23 March 2011
As Marek Troszczynski posts his works on to the Amateur Photography website, I assumed he reads the magazine “Amateur Photographer” which published my photography work.
There is also a case of a photographer who created his own version of my work after he saw it in the magazine.
I wondered why Marek Troszczynski has cropped his image and why it is in black and white.
However all my doubts were proved to be wrong when Marek Troszczynski denied knowledge of my work.
I have learnt the complexity of plagiarism, and I would like to share my experience so that others will learn from my mistake.
I would like to thank WPO for the time spent on my claim.
More information about Plagiarism