I exchanged emails with Mishka and asking his thoughts on image ownership. To paraphrase, his take was that notion of ownership and usage doesn't apply in his Art realm, or certainly not to the same extent as in Advertising where I was coming at the issue from. Lucky bugger. Fair play though, I doubt Warhol sought rights for the images he repurposed. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on that - did he give Gene Korman anything for his Marilyn Monroe image?)
So now I've somewhat chilled the fuck out about image licensing and who owns what - I've been looking for other examples of this type of found photography. The more I think about it, the more I am starting to appreciate the process these guys must undertake, sifting and filtering through literally millions of images. Is it really that different to walking around with a camera, selecting the shot through the viewfinder and firing the shutter yourself?
Take a look at the work of photographer Jon Rafman who is creating a huge body of really intriguing and beautiful work.
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