When I took this picture of Antonio Hart at The Blue Note I posted a question in a technical thread on Flickr: could I print and sell this image of Hart without his consent.

Last night I was at The Blue Note in New York and shot a number of pictures of a famous jazz band, mostly of individual players like this one of Antonio Hart: Antonio Hart Soloing at The Blue Note My question for all of you pros and semi-pros is: what can I do and not do with a picture like this? I know I can post it here. I know I can print it for personal use, but can I sell it? Can I publish it in a magazine?

A good conversation ensues, covering aspects I would not have thought of like what the venue would have to say about it. I also did not realise a press pass is not a silver bullet solution in many cases, just giving you a few extra feet of proximity a lot of the time. It seems, as with pictures of the public, a lot of the decision would come down to “reasonable expectations of privacy”; the dude was on stage at a promoted event open to the public so really shouldn’t expect to be invisible, right?

Regardless, Richard did the right thing and asked the subject of the photograph his own opinion on the matter.

Technorati Tags: photographer, photography, law, news