Has any other museum tried a monthly photo contest, and can tell
me what issues I can expect? We’re going to try it this fall (Sept-Dec).
Sorry that the following is a long post, but based on previous discussion
threads I want to try and address as many of the usual “sticking points”
I can recall. The main issue that we see here is rights to use images.
We want to set monthly themes, and accept fitting images emailed
to us during a set time frame. Photos must have been taken at the museum. One
winning picture, along with the photographer’s name and city, will appear
on the museum’s front webpage the following month. We are considering
posting “runners up” on a separate photo gallery linked from the front
page, but haven’t decided about this. This contest will raise interest in
our museum, involve the public more, and also easily give our webpage a fresh
look on a regular basis.
Our IT people have told us to go ahead, that issues of viruses, file
size/space, and turnaround time are not problems.
I know that many of you represent the professional photographer
point of view, and are well versed in copyright etc. This contest is more
intended for amateurs but we were not planning on excluding professionals
(unless there are good reasons to do so). And yes, we are aware that photos of
children must have their parent/guardian permission; if our winners portray
children, we would contact the photographer on a case-by-case basis before
posting their image.
It seems if a person has submitted a photo for a contest knowing
that the winning shot will appear online, are they are implicitly giving us
permission to use the photo in that way? Does this need to be spelled out in
the rules?
Staff has raised the issue that if we receive stellar shots, the
museum may like to keep digital copies for our use on our other webpages or in
future publicity. Is it worth it to ask every person submitting a photo, to
include an online legal form granting such permission (knowing that we probably
would not want to keep the majority of images received anyway)? We don’t
want to require that everybody entering the contest must give up image
ownership—that’s not right and it’s not our intent. We just
want to explore the possibility. How can we, efficiently, let photographers indicate
whether they give us that permission or not? Should our rules mention the
possibility of this, and what should they say? Or should we just contact photographers
on a case-by-case basis after receiving photos?
-Anne Nagrant, Public Programs
Troy Museum & Historic Village
60 W Wattles Rd, Troy MI 48098
(248) 524-3570