One of our authors wanted to use a number of images by the photographer Brassaï in her book. Early on in the process, she obtained permission for the reproductions of these images from Art Resource. The permissions license from Art Resource stated, however, that permission also needed to be obtained from the Brassaï Estate, managed by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux. Early attempts to work out a permissions license with RMN floundered, and as the book neared production, we grew concerned that we were still missing these permissions from RMN. We e-mailed and called their Paris office for a couple of weeks, with no luck. Then, someone who worked at RMN wrote to say that we should write to Art Resource to request a permissions license. This was quite strange since on the Art Resource license we obtained for the images over a year and a half before, they directed us to this very person for the rights! We eventually received word from RMN that no permissions were necessary from them (but they hold the copyright to the images, noted in the caption for each).
CASE STUDY
Obtaining permission to use Brassaï images
BY Jade Brooks
- Permissions