Robert Mapplethorpe, known by music lovers for his relationship with Patti Smith in the 1970’s, had a profound impact on the art world in his short life. While his pictures once spurred protests and even prompted the arrest of one museum curator, his graphic depictions of sex and nudity are now displayed in the world’s fine art museums and sell at auctions for more than $300,000. This spring, HBO released a documentary retrospective entitled Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. The film coincides with exhibitions at the J. Paul Getty Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, both of which…

Every summer, photographers from all over the world gather in a small city in the south of France. They go to attend a photography festival known as the Rencontres d’Arles (formerly known as the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles). Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, author Michel Tournier, and historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette first organized the festival in 1970, and it has since grown into one of the most unique and influential yearly exhibitions in the photography world. Because the Rencontres d’Arles has a policy of featuring almost exclusively new work, it is known for displaying groundbreaking work and launching careers. Every…

Thanks to technology, you can click on basically any image on the Internet and download it to your computer. However, that does not mean you have permission to repost that image on your own website. Many bloggers (even lawyers) fail to consider copyright law when posting images online. A Washington, D.C. patent attorney recently paid $8,000 to settle allegations that he used copyrighted stock images without authorization. According to the National Law Journal, image-licensing company Masterfile Corp. initially filed suit in September, seeking $150,000 in damages for two instances of willful copyright infringement. Attorney Jerry Joseph allegedly used two of…