The Borrowed Photograph
Malik, a senior in a 22-student digital media class, has built a 3000 × 4000 px collage for the spring exhibition. He cropped a copyrighted news photograph of a protest, increased contrast, overlaid a poem, and added a thin red border. He did not credit the photographer and says, “It’s transformative-I changed the meaning.” The exhibition is in the school commons; a local paper may publish photos of the show. Malik plans to submit the piece to a regional juried show with a $25 entry fee. You teach appropriation as a legitimate practice and have shown students examples of artists who reuse images. The class has one week before file submission, and Malik has already printed a 16 × 20 inch version at his own expense.
1. What do you do about the printed piece and the juried submission, and why?
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I would not approve the current file for the juried show. “Transformative” is an argument, not a magic word; fair use requires a four-factor analysis, and using a full-frame news photograph with recognizable people may take more of the original than necessary. The juried show and newspaper coverage increase public and market exposure, which weighs against fair use. Attribution does not equal permission. For the school exhibition, I would treat it as a teachable moment only with a source log and a plan: seek permission, substitute a licensed image, or reshoot the scene himself. The printed 16 × 20 can remain a classroom study if labeled as such; I would not display it publicly until the source issue is resolved. I would document the conversation and avoid publicly shaming him.
2. Design a one-class lesson that uses this dilemma to teach fair use and ethical appropriation without shutting down Malik’s creative agency.
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Start with Malik’s piece as a case study, not a confession. Students apply the four factors-purpose and character, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market-to his collage and to two contrasting examples: a collage that uses a small detail with commentary, and one that reproduces a whole image decoratively. Then ask what “transformation” would require beyond cropping and color: new meaning, critique, or new context. Students revise a source plan: what they need from the source, what they can make themselves, what permission or license they can obtain. Malik can keep the poem and composition but replace the photograph with his own image of a protest or a licensed one. The lesson preserves his concept while teaching that ethical constraints can drive form.
3. How would you assess the work if Malik replaces the photograph with his own image?
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I would assess the same stated criteria-composition, image-text relationship, technical control, and conceptual clarity-not penalize him for the substitution. I would add a short process document: original source plan, proof of permission or authorship, and a reflection on how the change affected meaning. If his own photograph weakens the specific protest context, that is a legitimate artistic problem to solve, not a compliance box. I would compare the two versions in critique and ask whether the new image does the work the borrowed one did. The judgment is to keep the ethical requirement firm while making the assessment about artistic decision-making, so he experiences copyright as a design constraint rather than a punishment.