St. John's University Law Faculty Blog

 

On Tuesday November 29th, Professor Eva Subotnik joined a roundtable discussion at NYU School of Law of her co-authored project, The Art and Business of Photography in the Digital Age, which was presented by her co-author Professor Jessica Silbey.

In addition, on Friday January 13, 2017, Professor Subotnik will be serving as a commentator at NYU’s Seventh Annual Tri-State Region IP Workshop. Specifically, she will be commenting on a paper on copyright law, fair use, and art written by Professor Amy Adler.

A description of Professor Subotnik’s project on The Art and Business of Photography in the Digital Age is below:

The Art and Business of Photography in the Digital Age

Using both qualitative and quantitative empirical methods, we are investigating the business and art of photography as it has evolved with digital technology. The goals of the project are to learn how earning a living as a photographer (or through photography) and the practice of photography have changed in the age of internet distribution and e-commerce, quickly evolving digital photographic equipment, and the accompanying changes to culture, aesthetics and the market. In particular, we are interested in the roles intellectual property law plays in the enduring or changing aspects of photography as a professional and artistic endeavor.

This workshop will describe the qualitative methods for collecting data (long-form interviews) as well as for coding and analyzing the interview data. We are only about half-way through the interviews, so our analysis of the data will be preliminary. We plan a large-number survey to test the relevant variations within the interviews and will describe the initial stage of the survey research as well. We will present initial findings of patterns and distinctions within the data concerning business methods for photographers, their assertion of copyright, and changing aesthetic practices. We will also discuss initial difficulties we had designing the qualitative study due to IRB restrictions and inter-institutional collaborations. Our aim is to share our process, our reasons for choosing these research methods, and our early-stage substantive findings on the relationship between creativity, market practices, intellectual property and digital technology in the field of photography.

Posted on November 30, 2016 at 9:26 pm in Uncategorized   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL