» Model’s photos being used without permission
Sandra Omo is concerned about models’ photos being used without them knowing
I am beginning to wonder the possibility of a model fronting the cover of a magazine without even knowing it. For sure if it’s a well known magazine, there is no way the model wouldn’t know, and the magazine itself wouldn’t make such a blunder knowing how much it will cost them if the model in question sues.
Now that brings me to the question of small magazines in other parts of the world, that the model or anyone that knows them will never get to see – is it possible? The answer is a big ‘yes’.
“There my photo was, fully blown up for the mag’s special fashion week introductory edition”
I have seen faces of models on flyers promoting a show or competition that they know nothing about, on magazines promoting one product or another in a country where they have never set foot in, and might never do so and, talking about unknown magazines, their faces are the usual instruments used for selling them. And this makes me wonder if they ever sit down to think about this, or does it bother them at all? So, are models bothered about where their names and faces may appear in without their knowledge?
Well, I think the answer is a yes and no depending on the influence and the earning power of the magazine, and the truth is I have never thought about it until recently where it seems as though I am always the last person on Earth to know I am in a magazine. This, normally, would have been funny to me but after three different incidences in one week, I am beginning to take it seriously.
I went to a casting on Sunday, which took all day in a city five hours’ ride from London – talk about how far I will go for a job – and all the way through I noticed a group of girls staring at me. It was as though they were trying to come to terms with the fact that I was at the same casting with them. Finally, two of them walked up to me, introduced themselves and showed me my picture in the magazine they were looking at. There my photo was, fully blown up as the main photo for the magazine’s fashion week special introductory edition. Although I had never heard about this mag before, it looked classy and I liked what I saw. Now this was incident number one.
As I returned home from a night out with friends the next day, I bumped into my fellow agency model and we began to chat. Just then, she mentioned she had a magazine I am featured in at home. Out of curiosity, I get a copy of the mag the next day and there it is: a two-page feature on my career so far, with great photos. Now I know this mag and remember meeting them in a couple of shows but I had absolutely no idea about the feature: incident number two.
A couple of days later, I ran into a WH Smith’s to avoid the rain. To while away the time, I begin to flip through magazines. To my utmost surprise, there I am in the latest edition of Ebony magazine! I rush to the counter and buy it while still trying to believe it. Now I am flattered. But after this third incident, I am beginning to imagine where else I may have appeared without even knowing. The publicity is good but it would be more fulfilling if I knew about it, at least I could enrich my book with tear sheets of these features and boast of them. So it pains me not to know. I mean, how can I be on the shelves and not know about it?
