George Zimbel has been a professional photographer for over 60 years, has photographed Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1950, and a particular photo he took of Jacqueline & John F. Kennedy caused quite a stir 40 years later when The New York Times tried to claim ownership of his historic image. George stood up to The New York Times for himself and freelancers as a whole.
Many media companies are often at odds with freelance writers and photographers over who owns the words and images once they have appeared in print.
What follows is an exchange of letters about a single picture. It was triggered by an e-mail from the photographer, George S. Zimbel, to Barbara Cox of Photokunst, a consulting firm for both individual photographers and archives, including The New York Times archives.
Who owns this picture? George S. Zimbel — not The New York Times.
Continue reading the back and fourth between George and New York Times’ legal counsel and see how Mr Zimbel secured the return of his original print.
Also be sure to keep up on George’s blog displaying some very vintage photographs taken throughout his career!
Marilyn Monroe, NYC 1954 @ George S. Zimbel
Manhattan Looking South, 1954 © George S. Zimbel
Great stuff. It’s appalling what individuals and corporations will attempt to get away with because they think no one is paying attention. Its nice to know someone as thoughtful and pugnacious as George gave Times lawyers the what for. Kudos.
Great stuff, George. I find it heartening when an individual stands up for what’s right. As a photojournalist and a writer, I’m understandably interested in copyright infrigement and being able to get credit (and paid) for my work.
I’m also a member of the National Writers’ Union (NWU) and was amazed that as an undergrad of the journalism department of USF in St. Pete, FL, we studied New York Times v. Tasini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Tasini), which dealt with NYT’s infriging on writers’ copyrights.
Again, thank you very much for standing up. On the surface, it might have been just for your rights, but the bottom line is that you were standing up for others, too.
[...] trove of vintage photography and stories of the days of photographic yore (check out the blog). Via The Photo Brigade, I see that Zimbel has published a 2001 exchange with a New York Times Company lawyer when trying [...]