Godzilla Rejects Conde Nast Contract
Think only travel writers get screwed by their publishers? Think again. Photographers are also falling down the deep hole into economic oblivion, as pointed out today in a snippet from The New York Post:
PHOTOGRAPHERS are fuming at the strict new contracts Condé Nast is making them sign. "If you want to shoot for Condé Nast publications — any of them — you have to sign this contract that basically means you sign your life over," groused one lenser. According to several snappers, Condé Nast is offering three types of contracts. "One says they pay you basically nothing and own all the works thereafter," our source said. "The middle contract states they will pay you $50 if they resell your photo, and the top contract says they'll give you a bit more money for reselling. But the principle of them all is the same: they own you and your work. Making us give up our photo rights is basically taking away our living and ensuring that if they open up a Vogue in the Czech Republic, they can fill the magazine with our work for nothing."
So far, shutterbugs and their agents have stood firm: "No one we know has signed the contract yet, but it is a matter of time. We have to eat, you know." Exempt from the draconian arrangements are top talents like Annie Leibovitz and David LaChapelle. A rep for Conde Nast declined comment.
