Did the Internet Kill the Photography Star? by Linda Shantz
Image reproduced by kind permission of the artist Linda Shantz The progression of the internet has been both a blessing and a curse to artists. On the plus side, we are able to reach a much larger audience with our work, and do more marketing on our own than the old days. The negative is that sharing our work online – through websites, blogs, and social media – makes us vulnerable to image theft. One of my artist friends, Michelle Grant , likes to say, “You can die of exposure,” and when it comes to the internet, it’s very nearly true! Image theft has become a huge problem for artists and photographers . Just in case you don’t know, grabbing someone else’s photos (by right-clicking or doing a screen capture, that sort of thing) and sharing it with your friends is more than wrong – it’s illega l. We artists are usually nice people, but this sort of thing makes us rabid. We hate appearing as ogres. It’s really not in our nature. We’d rather be creating new work than chasing aft...
