the story behind leonard's photo

[Geoffrey]

hello. one of the best portrait photographs ever taken of leonard has within just a few hours of appearing on his facebook page attracted hundreds of comments and 'shares' - plus many thousands of 'likes' - and the numbers seem to be climbing by the hour. i have posted a link below, but know not if it will work.

the photograph has been attributed to me, but the truth is: i did not take the picture, it was merely taken with my camera. that would probably pose a tricky copyright or ownership question, but such things concern me not at all - and though i have not asked, i doubt very much it would concern the photographer.

as far as i remember, leonard and i were sitting in a tent having an after-dinner chat while the vegetable stroganoff in our stomachs had time to digest. ed saunders came in, picked my camera up off the table and took a photo of us. i asked him if he would kindly take another one, because i wasn't sure whether or not i had blinked just as he pressed the button. leonard then said: "yes, take a lot more!" - and ed did so.

https://www.facebook.com/leonardcohen/p ... =3&theater

[LisaLCFan]

Thanks, Geoffrey! Not being one of those facebook sorts, I would not otherwise have seen this truly exceptional photo of Leonard. Very nice!

[Geoffrey]

Thanks, Geoffrey! Not being one of those facebook sorts, I would not otherwise have seen this truly exceptional photo of Leonard. Very nice!

good of you to comment, dear lisa. glad you liked the photo. here is one of me eating a hamburger, taken an hour ago

[LisaLCFan]

Good to see that you enjoy fine dining at swanky restaurants!

[Sideways]

Great photo! Awesome!

[Geoffrey]

Good to see that you enjoy fine dining at swanky restaurants!

well, it's good for me to occasionally mix with common working class people, because i have always respected them so much. without them we would have no labourers, road-sweepers, public toilet attendants, dustmen and the like - it would be a sorry state of affairs. admittedly, they might not have had an education past secondary schooling, but what those boneheads lack in intelligence they make up in muscle.

Great photo! Awesome!

yes, very awesome. if you see michael perhaps you could ask him a question for me. if someone picks up my camera and uses it to take a prize-winning picture, who owns the copyright?

[Sideways]

"I Am a Camera" is a 1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten It also earned the famous review by Walter Kerr, "Me no Leica".

[B4real]

if someone picks up my camera and uses it to take a prize-winning picture, who owns the copyright?

Geoffrey, I hope this helps you - mind you, I think the rules could change depending on the country you are in but this is the general law.

More info here: http://www.photoattorney.com/qa-who-owns-the-copyright/

Q. If I hand my camera to another person to shoot a few frames, who owns the copyright for the images?

A. Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Unless the photo is a work made for hire, then the other person – not you – owns the copyright. However, depending on the circumstances, you likely have an implied license to use the photograph for personal uses. For example, if you ask someone to take a shot of your family on vacation, you could do things such as print the photo for display in your home, post the photo on your personal Facebook page, or share the photo via email with friends or family. But you probably wouldn’t have the right to enter the photo into a contest or license it for commercial purposes.

.....and this from another "point of view"
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/j ... -copyright

[Cate]

There are many people in this world who would like to make somebody else smile the way you are in this picture, it must be a very good hamburger
... or perhaps a very good photographer.

I see chocolate bars in the background, hamburgers and chocolate - this is a dangerous place.