A friend of mine from the Northwest, a woman who is just a few years older than I, was recently diagnosed with non-smoker's lung cancer, stage IV, which has gone to brain and kidneys. It's not a good situation. This friend has generously started a group on Facebook so that the many people who know her can follow her journey, which she is transparently sharing. Currently her daily posts are gripping, focusing on her preparation for and beginning radiation treatments for the tumors in her brain.
A couple of weeks ago, shortly after she broke the news, I posted a beautiful photo to the group that I took of my friend two and a half years ago. It shows her luminescent spirit, sitting at sunset in her favorite spot by the Whitman Monument in the Walla Walla Valley.
On Friday I opened up the Facebook page to see my photo of my friend looking back at me...over a link to a fundraiser for her medical expenses. How many mixed feelings can one have? I am glad friends are raising money to help with her expenses. But I would like to have been asked. I don't even know the person who started the fundraiser and used my photo. I don't like the fundraiser website they're using because you are expected to pay a fee for donating through the website. While I think web developers should be paid for their work, the fee is more than I think is fair, and I feel like this particular site is using people's hardship or dreams to get rich quick. I don't like my creative work to be used in connection with that. And again, I think it would have been the right thing to do for the lady who used the photo, to ask my permission.
I already knew this theoretically, but it was brought back to mind experientially that once you post a photograph on the internet, you cannot assume that you are the only one who will use that photograph.
I already knew this theoretically, but it was brought back to mind experientially that once you post a photograph on the internet, you cannot assume that you are the only one who will use that photograph.
Will I say anything? The most important thing at this point is for my friend to fight her battle free of any controversy on the sidelines, and for her to get as much support as possible from the loving people surrounding her. So, no, I won't say anything except here, where none of them read.
But it did rattle me.
Wow, I would feel exactly the same way. Wonder why they didn't just simply ask? Then again, maybe they got it from someone else and had no clue who took it? (Playing devil's advocate.)
ReplyDelete