Ed. — From the Sunday, Aug. 7, print edition.
BACK BAY — Corrections are never fun, but they are necessary. We need to explain when we get it wrong. And, when I say we, it is usually me who is getting it wrong.
That’s my awkward transition into talking about a thornier issue: how and when we use certain kinds of photographs, especially images we did not take ourselves.
That became an issue in the past edition because we used a photo that should not have run. It was of Garry Hubbard with a story about his candidacy in the Virginia 2nd Congressional District, which came to an end when he did not gather enough signatures on his petitions. We used the photo believing it was a publicity still for the candidate. After publication, the author of the photo objected. With good reason.
The author is Barbara Messner, a community advocate who is known for her remarks during City Council meetings. As some readers may know, she also has publicly criticized this newspaper and me.
Messner wrote to say Hubbard was able to use that image in a past political campaign, but this is no longer the case. That means neither Hubbard nor our newspaper was authorized to use the image now. Messner said she asked Hubbard to stop using it.
Had I known this was the case, I would not have used the photo. But I did, and I have corresponded with Messner to apologize and assure her we will not do so again.
It does not matter that it was accidental. What matters is it happened. I certainly do not like it when it happens to me, as it does every political season, including this one.
This can be a tricky for us, especially as November nears. We sometimes use images of candidates we did not take, usually ones provided by a candidate themself or by their campaign. For example, we ran a graphic this past month showing all candidates for local office in Virginia Beach along with the map of the new voting districts.
Some photos we had taken in the past. Others were government images or “courtesy” photos, meaning pictures provided by the subject or on behalf of the subject.
In many cases, I asked campaigns or the candidates themselves for photos. There are more than 30 folks running this year. It is unlikely another photographer or I will have a chance to photograph all of them for the newspaper. That is why I use the provided photos to show the candidates.
Images in the paper generally appear with two elements nearby. One is a caption describing the subject of a photo or the action it shows. The other element is a credit line naming the source or author of an image, usually next to the image. When a credit line says “courtesy,” that is meant to indicate The Independent News did not take the image but can use it. The photo of Hubbard was represented that way.
I need to be careful about what I use and clearly understand whether a campaign is using a picture they own or can give us permission to use. For candidates, I recommend working only with a professional photographer, and make sure the photographer understands how you will use the photo so you have rights to its use.
Contracts usually come with clarity.
Though I take photographs sometimes for the newspaper, I am not a professional photographer. I am only trying to make pictures I can run here, not document it for the subjects or any organization.
I always recommend using an established, fulltime professional photographer affiliated with an organization such as the Virginia Professional Photographers Association. A lot of folks call themselves photographers these days, but a real professional usually has an affiliation you can verify or a body of work and references for review.
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