Recently, I had a discussion with a co-worker (we will call her Carol) who had a family friend who passed away.  Carol mentioned that this person was a world traveler and was a keen amateur photographer.  

What Happened to the Photos?

Carol wondered what happened to his image library.  Having never married, he did not have children who might have shared an interest or been subjects in the photos.  Perhaps an admiring nephew or niece took them or perhaps they are in a land fill somewhere by now.  

If lost, what a waste.  This person spent a lifetime capturing images some of which were possibly of historical significance.  Rather than tossing the boxes of slides or hitting delete on the gigabytes of images, could they live on after the photographer’s eyes have shut for the last time?

The Living Images Photo Library

I think yes, and here is my proposal: a non-profit stock image organization that receives images and makes them available on the internet for subsequent use.  hTe working for this organization is the “Living Images Photo Library of the World“.  

Bikes in Portland Oregon… and an example of bequest to a stock image library.

When this friend passed away, his boxes of slides would have been digitalized, categorized, labeled and made available for others to enjoy or use.  There are lots of details and issues involved here including: 

• Ownership: the image rights are passed on to this organization in trust in perpetuity.  An appeal process for family members or subjects would be established.  
• Model rights: some ground rules would need to be established at a global level if there are people clearly visible in the image.  For example, a public street scene would not require a license but an photo of a single individual may require a release.
• Content Appropriateness: there are some obvious subjects that would not be accepted accordingly to currently accepted norms.  
• Cultural Appropriateness and the PC:  Because the library would be available globally, some cultural appropriateness rules would need to be developed.  What is perfectly acceptable in Canada may need to be suppressed in Upper Somewherestan – and vis versa.  At the same time, the organization may need to fight against western cultural hegemony particularly as expressed in political correctness.  
• Medium: assuming that only digital images are accepted, the person or the estate would need to digitalize from the physical mediums such as negatives or slides. 
• Who Pays: as a non-profit, it would need either ongoing cash donations, support of organizations or government support.  Ideally, using the images would be cost free for personal or non-profit use (e.g. education) but fees would apply for government or for-profit use. 
•  Taxonomy: like Wikipedia, I see volunteers looking at the images and categorizing them.  Artificial Intelligence is probably close to doing this as a first pass.  The owner may want to do this as part of bequeathing the images.  

Would You Give Away Your Pictures/

What do you think?  Would you give away your images as your last day appears to be coming closer?  If you were Carol’s nephew, would you work through 100,000 images of a life time digitalizing them as part of settling your uncle’s estate?  If you were in the image, would you want your six-year old self eating birthday cake being available for the world to see?

In other words, is this an idea of merit and worth pursuing?