[Leica] When should a printer refuse to print a photograph?

[ricc at embarqmail.com (Ric Carter)]

screw the fools

arguing will do nothing but bleed off your energy

just get another printer

ric


On Aug 27, 2010, at 2:12 PM, kyle cassidy wrote:

> I got word yesterday, via Twitter, that the printers hired to do the
> program for the American Repertory Theater's production of Cabaret
> (which I had shot the images for) had refused to print the book
> because of one of my photographs, which they found objectionable
> ("censurable" was the actual word they used).
> 
> It's Cabaret, you know, a play that has Nazi solders, nudity, cross
> dressing, sex and drug use -- it's been playing since the mid 1960's
> and Bob Fosse made a movie of it -- so I'm guessing you know what
> you're getting into when you're printing the souvenir program guide.
> But they were resolute. They'd print it if some text was moved to
> cover certain parts of the female anatomy in one image but that was
> it. I was a bit baffled -- as far as photographs go (of the sort that
> might be used for the program guide in a play about Nazi's and
> strippers that has a Parental Warning notice at the theater door) it
> was pretty tame and certainly not something that you couldn't find in
> any issue of Vogue -- I was also a bit surprised that a printer would
> offer opinions usually left to the art director. My involvement in the
> project was over weeks before so I wasn't on the front lines -- rather
> I watched it unfold on Twitter -- and it unfolded with a big bang as
> theater people, designers, and whomever else picked up the ball and
> started making a loud noise. In the face of the mini Internet
> firestorm the issue got resolved, like a bit of flotsam caught in a
> bend in the stream that gets freed eventually by the rush of water and
> the thing was gone -- but it was very interesting to watch unfold.
> 
> More thoughts on the matter and lots of photos (some possibly Not Safe
> for Work, depending on where you live) are collected here:
> 
>  http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/616860.html
> 
> and I'm very interested in your thoughts on the rights &
> responsibilities of the person in the Photomat booth (so to speak) --
> at what point can or should they put their foot down and say "I'm not
> printing this trash."
> 
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