Lena doesn’t harbor any resentment toward Sawchuk and his imitators for how they appropriated her image; the only note of regret she expressed was that she wasn’t better compensated. In her view, the photograph is an immense accomplishment that just happened to take on a life of its own. “I’m really proud of that picture,” she said.
> Forsén herself has also suggested that the photo should be retired. In 2019, she said she was “really proud” of the picture and she re-created the shot for Wired magazine, which called her “the patron saint of JPEGs”. But later that year, the documentary Losing Lena spearheaded the latest effort to encourage computer science to move on. “I retired from modelling a long time ago,” Forsén said on its release. “It’s time I retired from tech, too. We can make a simple change today that creates a lasting change for tomorrow. Let’s commit to losing me.”
Doesn't it seem weird that she was proud of the picture when interviewed in a neutral
context (Wired), but wanted it removed (not very strongly might I add) when interviewed by documentarians making a film with the express purpose of trying to get her picture removed? In the movie quote she even alludes to the title of the film: "Let's commit to losing me". It basically sounds like she gave them the soundbite they wanted.
Imo the reasonable thing to do would be to assign a higher credibility to her opinion in the Wired article higher than her opinion in the activist documentary.
Because the legitimate argument "it is against the wishes of the model" masks the underlying, foundational but hidden reason, which is "it appeals to the prurient interest of men in women, which I find detestable". Thus, finding another model who both consents to having her picture used but still appeals to the prurient male interest fulfills the stated claim while frustrating the unstated one.
Not really, if she understood well what the photograph was being used for at the time, you can't retrospectively wish against it. That's like saying Oh I don't want to be a pornstar anymore, take down all my content thanks.
That’s not what she’s saying. It’s a very simple and reasonable request. Choosing to not respect her wish is essentially choosing not to out of spite for her since the effort to respect it is essentially nothing.
She absolutely can. And we, collectively, can choose to respect that wish by using a different test image in future. And why not? It's no real burden to make the change.
I mean, I don't think Beyoncé should have (or does have) any legal recourse in that kind of situation, but publishing unflattering photos of people just to make fun of how they look is a fairly crappy thing to do. The decent thing to do in that situation would be to refrain from publishing the image unless there were public interest grounds for doing so.
The whole dynamic of this discussion is weird. There's a bunch of people coming up with long winded arguments, not-really-relevant examples and other guff.
And there's a bunch of us repeatedly saying "why not just be decent?"
I agree, being a decent person is an active choice we should all strive for.
The burden here is that a number of people are so afraid of being "woke" that they'd rather double down being scummy than just find a different jpeg. If it was their daughter I'm sure they'd have a different opinion
> If it was their daughter I'm sure they'd have a different opinion
Are we back in the 60s where a father has to sign off on the daughters job application? We are talking about a woman who willingly signed up for a playboy photoshoot, had been aware of the image being used and circulated for decades with no issues.
How could she possibly have known what the internet would become, or how vast? Nobody could have "understood" how their photo could be widely disseminated like today.
At the end of the day its a stolen photo, and immoral to continue to use against the express wishes of the subject, no matter how you want to justify it -- she asked, so just respect it instead of finding ways to justify being a jerk.
Even if you think it's woke, there's good reason to respect the model's wish