| Username |
Post |
| torilaure |
Posted
on 12-May-02 02:32 AM
Hi there,
In this issue of Time magazine(May 13, 2002) there's a story about Nepal. There are some pictures along with the story among which the attached photo is credited to Gopal Chitrakar (Photo Editor of Kantipur Publications).
Sagar Shrestha, a local photo journalist claims that the photo is his and he can prove it too. He said that Gopal Chitrakar also knows that but said he doesn't give a damn. What happenned was that the photo had been collected from Sagar for Vijaykumar's programme "Dishanirdesh" which was aired a couple of months ago on NTV. How the photo got published in Time under Gopal Chitrakar's name is anybody's guess.
I was just wondering is this could be called "Photo Plagiarism" or are there other proper terms for that.
Amar
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| Rat-a-tat |
Posted
on 12-May-02 03:46 AM
If this is really the case, than Sagar should personally write to Time to complain. Gopal Chitrakar should be punished for resorting to such unfair means by being so "loovi" to earn dollars by contibuting to Time - all despite being such a reputed senior photo journalist.
However, it is upto Sagar to raise the issue personally. It is he who's really suffering...
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| ashu |
Posted
on 14-May-02 06:06 AM
Amar,
Assuming all this is true, there is unfortunately NOTHING that Sagar, as a professional, can do in Kathmandu this case except get really angry for now, and then, learn NOT to trust other photographers with his own creations, especially when he has NOT sold or given up the rights.
Sagar can risk going mano-a-mano with GC over this with proofs and
all that, BUT
a) given how incestuous Nepal's media-photographers are,
and
b) given how 'high-up-there-in-seniority' GC is, (according to a friend who is a senior photographer at a daily newspaper)
my concern is that the COSTS (social, psychological, time-wise and even financial) of going after GC will be HIGHER than any benefits coming to Sagar's own career as a photojournalist in Kathmandu.
In other words, Sagar can aim to win the battle, so to speak, and even win that battle but he is likely to lose the war.
And so, if I were him, my strategy would be to: bite the bullet on this thing for now, chalk this whole thing up as (bitter) lessons learnt, and be super-careful
the next time around.
On a positive note, and sorry if I sound preachy, other people's
acts of
betrayals,
'back-stabbings' and
credit-stealing
like these in early in one's career or in one's personal life are
IMPORTANT for one's own growth.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| HahooGuru |
Posted
on 14-May-02 09:14 AM
If you have negative of the photograph, then, you
are going to win it. Otherwise, who owns negative
i.e. original is main concern.
Who is going to pay your legal expense in this war,
because the fine in Nepal's law is much less than
the cost of hiring a lawyer. Even a ghusyha will
be fined only a few thousand, when s./he gets
huge chunk of ghus. So, Nepal's law is not sensative
to the amount you lose.
When I went to Patent / Trademark dept./section in
Nepal's uddhyog bibhag, the peoples in the dept. are
so coward, they probably have no idea what is
patent, what is originality .... it seemed to me after
10minute talks, they were poped from some darta chalani
sakha at a CDO office and made officers at
Patent Dept, just the way we find peopels at TIA
Bhanshar. Japan bata aunu bhako 2000yen lyaunus,
natra parkhanus ek dhed ghanta until all guys clear,
and they are Nepali bhansar officers, and with those
bhansar officers' help pakistani passed gun, chaku ..
what not. So, in Nepal, originality will not be respected
until we get rid of those bastards occupying the key
positions with hook and crooks.
Well, there are other kinds of Photographers in Nepal.
In Pokhara, Zenith studio ... dai, I go to his
shop every time I land in Pokhara (lately) and when I asked
him some discounts, he told me that I won't discount
any amount, but, you are free to use it, and you even
don't need to acknowledge me, because I am giving
you the original negative of PG or positive film of the slides.
Orginal film nai diye pachi maile kasari claim garne. Hoina.
La paisa tirnus laijanus original. Well, I was happy to get
at Rs. 150 per slide, being a Japan bata farkeko 21st century ko
Nepali lahure. So, photographers if they feel insecured,
my only suggestion to you is to give only photographs
not the negative. Since its your creative work, no one in
Nepal is going to protect you, its you to protect your
original work. You should keep a proof, i.e. original.
At least, we at Sajha.com will trust you that the
work belongs to you if you can present original Pictures.
Well, today, we have digital camera. You must
use some method to put your signature in your
photographs. Best thing is you give trimmed picture
eg you took 1200x800 picture, then, you cut
it to 1150x780 and pass it to the guy who want it.
Because you have full sized original picture, the guy
who borrowed from you have only a part, thus, you
can claim later that its your work. If the receipient
does not mind, then, write photograph by ... your name
(laaj namani kan), and keep the original with you,
so that you can claim even if the guy overwrites
your name, the original i.e. the part behind your
name, will prove you as orignal owner.
These are my Hahoo!Ideas. Last time when I
attended an International workshop, I was the only
successful photographer to take best picture
and I put my name over the photograph and
passed the copy to chairperson, and well, I am
not inside the picture, but, I put my name and
its coming in news bulletine with my name as
photographer. Because, maile ta laaj namanikan
lekhidiye afno naam. Who cares. Tyasaile
you should have "signature" in your original
works, thats demand of time and thats the only
way to solve the plagariasm problem.
Keep it up.
hGxP
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 15-May-02 02:33 AM
Gurudev, very useful, honest, and entertaining posting! Enjoyed reading it like always. Thanks.
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 15-May-02 04:22 AM
GP-ji,
Winning is important, of course.
And for some people, winning IS everything.
But before one sets out with one's winning 'war strategy', so to speak, it helps to be coldly realistic about what one's 'enemy' looks like.
You know, the standard "Art of War" stuff.
Now, photojournalism is one of those niche professions in Nepal, in which one gets plum assignments primarily through referrals of and and through networks provided by other photojournalists and related professionals. You build
your career in this profession, primarily by playing along, even when your
seniors are stealing your ideas and getting the credits you should be
getting.
Theirs is a small, tight-knit group.
And Gopal Chitrakar -- regardless of what one thinks of him -- is one of the very big names who's on first-name terms with ALL the big media players in town. I mean, the guy even plays golf in Gokarna, back-slapping with all the bigwigs and so on.
I surely understand the part about GC's taking advantage of this young
photojournalist, and I am not denying the outrage that should bring
about, but -- with a cool,calm head -- a larger, strategic question is:
To what extent is this young photojournalist willing to go after GC without sabotaging/hurting his own career in photojournalism in Kathmandu?
Or, to borrow a Hollywood-sy phrase, look, you can piss off GC (even when
you are 100 per cent right) but you may never be able to eat lunch in this town
if you are going to remain a photojournalist. Your contacts are bound to dry
up, and suddenly you find that media houses do not want to do business with
you.
That's why, an alternative -- and a lot less less palatable -- strategy is to chalk
this whole thing up, no matter how infuriating, to occupational lessons, and move on to being more careful next time around.
***********
You know, and I mean this very GENERALLY -- and borrowing strategies from chess grandmasters -- in one's professional life as well as in one's personal life, sometimes you have let your opponents win a few rounds so that you can assess their weak spots, their vulnerabilities, their blind spots and modify your own strategies so that you are become all the more ready to nail them right on the
wall when the appropriate time comes.
Checkmate, as chess players would say!!
Until then, well, let the learning -- no matter how infuriating -- continue.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| HahooGuru |
Posted
on 15-May-02 08:06 AM
Ashu ji,
"Exploitation" of young peoples do exists everywhere,
not only in photography. Recently when someone approached
a professor in CalTech for Doctoral studies with scholarship,
the professor replied to him, why should I hire you an expensive
(with scholarship?), when I am going to get slaves free of charge.
It exists in research too. In universities, you can find the students
doing real research, the experiements .. .. , writing, and the
corrections from peer reviewers, and final publication, but, his/her
name appears at the end. If you try to tussle with your boss,
you are gone or fired or neglected, like sadak ka magne bachha jasto.
So, in photography also such phenomenon do exists, and the
best thing is to keep 100-99=1% secret of your work with you.
This is vital to push you in the market and get success and acknowledgements
on your side.
Let me give one example. One Professor at AIT in our class
room was explaining a very important result, and the author ABC
of the paper used to work under a boss for years. The boss
always published papers without any name of the real
researcher, and one day the ABC silently sent a paper to a
learned journal without telling the boss, the paper got published
and peoples had to find the guy. Finally, Mr. ABC 's work
were recognized very well and the boss has to leave the job
for the exploitation he had done for years. So, young
photographers (because there are 100s), should keep a
good shots for later use or to be passed to others once you
find or know the circuits very well. As long as you don't do
research on such circuits, you will be subjected to exploitation.
Exploitation is human psychology, and here we should worry
about how much can I tolerate the exploitation on me? It surely
depends on culture, geographical location, and economic situation
( I am borrowing the definition of Freedom given by Chinese leader
on Clinton's call for more freedom in China). My only suggestion
to Mr. Young Photographers or researchers or workers is to
keep the 1% of your work secretly with you and keep on
accumulating it, and one day, it will pay you back as Ashu
pointed out using the Chess game strategy. If you leave all
the things that you had, you will be equivalently raped like
a young girl in Bombay's red light streets, and returned to Nepal
when she had Aids or become old and useless or another new
MURGA arrives in the town. One thing you should remember,
the world of established BOSSes have the same feeling as
a Sashu bhi kabhi Bahu thi. Today, we can see our leaders too,
they were in jail, they did not have food for few days, and they
fought for peoples right, against corruption, but, when they
are there in power house, they forgot who were they, they
now think the BOSS is a position to exploit others. So, Mr. Young
photographers, will you not exploit the next generation youmg
photographer, is my last question to you? I wish you do not
become another Kada Sashu of your own buhari and exploit her.
...........................
Its the real world. Its the reality. Everyone knows, but, who
can hang the bell ? Should we revolt? Should we execuse ?
or should we wait till we become Sashu? I am not sure,
what is right or wrong? Its not problem of one Sashu, or
Buhari, its a social problem, we need KRAMIK sudhar
in law, education, ethics and manner. Are we geared to be
better Sashu? when our own Buhari enters our home?
Lets think of the future, and lets not repeat the history, but,
lets learn from the history. This is my motto.
sorry to be long. Its my style. I am not forcing anyone
to read it, and I am neither BOSS in this site, so all youngs
are free to agree and disagree. But, remember one thing,
if you oppose me too much, and if you are young Buhari
(new writer), my fellow established writers in this forum
will jump on you, giving you a taste of disappointing a gang
member. Its the mechanism that has similarity everywhere.
I am a man working on mechanism and doing research on
mechanism.
I am studying what happens when a strong material
is put inside a soft or very weak material? Exactly speaking
when you put FALAM ko CHHAD lai pahad ko mato ma
ghusaidiyo bhane ke huncha? Do you know my conclusion,
based on my 30+ technical papers, CHHAD ma kehi pani
asar dekhidaina. I proved it by experiments, that cost me
30,000dollars to prove that. Similarly, GC will not have
any effect if the young photographer tries to complain.
But, now I am going to publish a new series of papers, how
can you make that FALAM ko CHHAd to show some response?
That paper is coming soon. I will let you know, once I publish it.
Then, I will explain how GC can be made accountable and
acknowledge that the photographs were not his original, but,
borrowed on this and this conditions.. . . .. . I wish my
research can be extended there too.
HG
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| ashu |
Posted
on 15-May-02 10:03 PM
GP-ji,
Yes, this sort of exploitation happens more often than not, in more subtle, sinister forms, in science labs and elsewhere.
Agreed.
I fully share your outrage.
My point is: Unfortunately, there is a TRADE-OFF between how far are you going to to push the limits on this sort of thing and NOT hurt/sobotage your own nascent career in the process.
And that it's best to act in your own long-term interests than try to score
short-term points, especially when the 'opponent' is a potential employer, recommendation-writer, connector to a larger network, and on and on.
Tetti ho.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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