A Vancouver fashion photographer, who pours her creative soul into fantasy images of models from here to Europe in Gothic attire, was gob smacked to discover her photos being modified and sold in Southeast Asia.
“I was quite upset, because when I looked into it, the gallery is quite prestigious,” said Lillian Liu in an exclusive interview with CTV News.
After being tipped by a fan of hers in Asia, she found her altered work being exhibited at “Edwin’s Gallery” in Jakarta, Indonesia. An artist took her couture photos without permission, made minor changes, printed them on wood and showcased them in August for art collectors.
The event was sponsored by fashion magazine Harper’s BAAZAR, which publicized the event and posted photos of Liu’s altered work on its Instagram.
In Liu’s work, “Patron of War,” a Danish muse in a gold and red dress shows empty hands. The Jakarta artist Photoshopped the model to be holding a light bulb.
In another of image, “Moonbeam,” a silvery-skinned Vancouver model holding scanty flowers was morphed into holding a larger bouquet. It was then ironically renamed, “Be Mine.”
Liu calls the alterations superficial and a “cute” attempt at trying to get around copyright.
“You can’t take whatever that inspires you and then essentially Xerox it and call it yours,” she said. “Granted, there is a fine line where something is satire or a parody, and in that sense, [copying] is allowed. But this is in no way a satire or a parody of my work.”
CTV News reached the gallery in Jakarta, who confirmed the images on wood were no longer for sale.
BAAZAR and the gallery both deleted Instagram posts of the altered work and apologized to Liu.
The exhibition artist, Miranti Minggar, said on Facebook that, “[Liu’s] works had inspired us. I [used] her work images without including the credit tittle (sic) in my works.”
"I apologize... for my ignorance as a new artist who does not know the consequences of the details and context of intellectual and royalty rights."
“Hopefully it will be a good learning experience for me.”
In response, Liu says, “When you study art, you learn a lot through copying. Through imitation, that’s how you learn techniques. [But] if I were to draw the Mona Lisa, I can’t say ‘oh Hi, this is the Mona Lisa and it is mine.’”
It doesn’t look like those cases are the only example of copying by Minggar, with viewers discovering other pieces, including “Three-Handed Madonna” by Polish artist Katarzyna Widmanska.
“I felt anger but it’s not the first time someone copied my work,” Widmanska told CTV News. “People think they are free to take someone’s work from the internet without consequences. I’m not sure if most of them know the meaning of the word 'plagiarism.'”
In Canada, the “fair dealing” copyright exemption to allow the re-use of an image can be applied for parody and satire, for a news story or review, as long as the re-use is “fair.” After the creator has been dead for 50 years, a work goes into the public domain and can be re-used more freely.
Vancouver lawyer Martha Rans gives advice to artists through Artists Legal Outreach. She says sometimes the best defense is prevention.
“Find out how to protect your work by not putting up high resolution images, watermarking, making it difficult for people to use your work without your permission,” she said.
Another good step is to clearly show copyright on your website to avoid any confusion.
Some creators, in this day of prolific social media sharing, give their digital art away for free in return for promotion.
Electronic music artist group Grammatik allows their work to be downloaded for free, modified by other DJs and posted online to build fans for concerts. But they still forbid their altered work to be monetized on Youtube.
As for Liu, who works a day job teaching piano at the Vancouver Academy of Music, she says there are others to be considered in each of her photos too: the model, the couture clothing designer, make-up and jewelry artists and a set designer.
Liu says she’s not likely to pursue an international lawsuit given the cost and complication. But she has a tip for those wanting to “lift” another artist’s work. Sometimes, she says, a small fee or a request to use it, is all that’s needed.
“This could have been so easily resolved if the artist had reached out to me and said, ‘Hi, I’d like to collaborate on this. Can I work with you?’”
One altered photo of Liu’s was still shown under the “recent exhibitions” section of the Edwin’s Gallery web site on the weekend, but was deleted after CTV News made an inquiry.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Jon Woodward
