Quote:
Originally posted by dtb
Good on her, then. I just know how I would feel, and I wouldn't like it (I don't think; and God willing, I won't ever find out how I would actually feel in such a situation). Clearly, it's not an outrageous view, as the photographer was concerned about it. Or maybe he [the photographer] and I are the only two loonies on the planet.
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Well, I posted that quote for the part about how the mother felt about the picture. The concern the photographer, however, was for the commercialization of the photo, which the mother did not like. After he saw her say that on the news about the legitimate uses of the photo, he started putting it on fucking T-shirts and stuff and she didn't like that at all.
- Permission granted, Lester thought to himself. He started making deals.
A photo distribution company wanted to market the picture to other publications. Why not? A company wanted to sell 18-inch statues of the image. Done. His wife suggested T-shirts, with some of the profit going toward a downtown statue of the image. Sure.
The T-shirts had been in the store only a few days when the shop owner called. The baby's mother is here, he said, and she's livid.
Lester had been trying for weeks to reach her. He wanted to offer to pay for Baylee's funeral, or at least the headstone, but couldn't find out where Aren was staying.
He hung up, jumped in his van and raced to the store. When he got there, Aren was gone. When Lester finally saw her, it was on TV. She was complaining bitterly about Lester making money off her tragedy.
Gas company executives thought the controversy was bad for public relations, and they let Lester know it. What kind of unethical, immoral profiteer was he?
Lester was shocked. He had done a good job for this company for 32 years and now they were making him out to be a crook.
At 10 a.m. on Sept. 6, the boss dropped a document on Lester's desk and gave him a choice. Sign over the photo rights to the company, which would give all the money to charity, or get fired.
There is more to the story. But the point is that as long as the picture was being used for its news value, she was OK with it and even thought it was a good thing. When the photographer started selling it on T-shirts, etc., she wasn't OK with that.
