Rebecca Britt, a highly respected photographer and influential member of the EDM photographers Facebook group, wrote a fantastic article on Fstoppers.com laying out the recent incident between Diplo and a concert photography outlet. Britt opens her piece with a brief introduction that speaks to who Diplo is, including some of his accomplishments – for those who don’t know of him. After clearly exemplifying his relevance and impact within the music industry, Rebecca explains VisualBass.com‘s story.
The story: “The photography collective Visualbass was granted a press pass to the Mad Decent Block Party in Toronto (Mad Decent is owned by Diplo) to shoot on behalf of the blog ThisSongSlaps.com. When shooting at the show the photographer didn’t sign a copyright grabber or contract giving their copyrights away, although other photographers present at the concert did. The photographer was allowed photo pit access and took some pretty killer photos of the event, but when Diplo posted the photo on his Instagram the photographer took to twitter to express his disappointment.” – via Rebecca Britt (fstoppers.com)
Artists that don’t credit photographers isn’t a new issue within the EDM scene. This has been happening since the start of the music’s explosion into the “mainstream”. Rebecca mentions in her article that most photographers pay out-of-pocket because they simply don’t make enough money (if any) just shooting electronic events. To not be paid for their services and then to have their work not properly credit is absolutely disheartening and honestly a disgrace. Personally, I’d like to believe that someone as successful as Diplo (and his management team) could understand that. However, I don’t believe that the EDM photographers community was particularly angry about Diplo’s failure to credit VisualBass.com, but rather about how he handled the situation:
Incredibly, it took only sixteen words to completely devalue the art that concert photographers provide. Shortly after this exchanging of words VisualBass.com decided to start selling the print of their photograph which sparked a conversation between Diplo and twitter user @Grassyyyyyyyyyy.
I’m not a photographer myself, but the way Diplo has gone about handling this situation is completely uninspiring, I can’t say that enough. Members of our EDM community feel the same as they have voiced their opinions via Twitter in an effort to support the people who capture the moments that we’ll never forget at events that, at times, change our lives:
At the end of her article Rebecca Britt explains print and copyright laws pertaining to this situation brilliantly. Only to finally finish off with a slew of photos taken of Diplo/Major Lazer by the members of the EDM photographers Facebook group. Super classy if you ask me. Overall she does a fantastic job representing concert photographers and explain this situation fully.
As a blogger, music lover, and art enthusiast it pains me to have to read about situations like this. It makes me think, I can not imagine an artist not crediting any of Rukes’ work. Why can’t the respect be mutual across the board?
Soucre(s): Fstoppers.com
Photos: Fstoppers.com
This article was written by: Follow @TyGuyMusic
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