Digital Foundations

We are looking ahead to the problem of securing image rights for the images we want to include. The publisher with which we are negotiating a contract has indicated that they will not pay for image rights fees.

xtine did some research last week, and found Art Resource, which bills itself as a Fine Art Stock Photography company. Our initial estimate was around $250 per image. We have 2 images per chapter, and 20 chapters; 2 x 20 x $250 = *20*250 = $10,000! Which is not feasible, to say the least…

So: brainstorm time. What can we do to cut our costs to much much less than that:

• Not use any images
• Use only images that are in the public domain
  • Expired copyright (Aubrey Beardsley on Wikimedia Commons)
  • Creative Commons (There are CC images of the Bauhaus Dessau on Flickr)
  • Use WPA images for the chapter on tonal range and basic image corrections (from Library of Congress)
  • Steve Lambert has suggested www.openclipart.org
• Only use images from alive artists/designers we can call/email/write and ask
• Are there any Museums with open image rights policies?
  • Publicly owned museums (Met, Smithsonian etc?)
  • Libraries (NY Public Library, Newark Library Print collection
• Approach one Museum and propose that we use only their works, and co-brand the book
• Approach one/multiple art/design collectors, and ask them to use works from their collections (Collectors often really like having their work appear in print/catalogues, as it validates their works+tastes, increases provenance, and thus increases the value of their works — the anti-benjamin process.)
• Approach a private gallery for the image rights to the works they currently have in their inventory (trouble here is that they will probably sell them during the print run of the book, and maybe our permissions will no longer be valid…)