Your Photos: Look At Them As Deposits to the Bank

Few photographers imagine their photos are worth much more than the immediate compensation they receive from a magazine, book publisher or assignment client.

Also, to save filing space, many photographers have thrown out extra "baggage" of "outdated" negs, and transparencies, and of course, digital images. Little do they realize they are tossing away a gold mine. In the early days, some photographers had special agreements with their publishers or newspaper and magazine editors, that ownership of photos purchased, could revert back to them (the photographers) after three years. In some cases the agreement would state a shorter period of time. (This was in the days before the revision of the Copyright Law decreed that copyright ownership now stays with the photographer. In its earlier form, the Copyright Law transferred copyright to whoever bought a "use" right to a photo.)

COPYRIGHT MATURITY

Unfortunately, in those earlier days some photographers didn