Nussenzweig v. DiCorcia (2005) was a Supreme Court case decided by
the New York Supreme Court in New York County that holds that a photographer
could display, publish, and sell street photography without the consent of the
subjects of those photographs.
In 1999 a photographer named Philip-Lorca diCorcia set up his
camera and equipment in Times Square, New York, looking for a spot to practice
the art of street photography. He set up a couple strobe lights onto some
scaffolding and took photos of strangers walking under them. He did this for
two years, until he had finished his project called “heads” that he would
present at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City from September 6th, 2001-October 13th, 2001.
In 2001, Erno Nussenzweig, an Orthodox Jew and retired diamond
merchant from Union City, New Jersey, saw his picture at the gallery show named
“Heads”. He then called his lawyer Jay Goldberg, and sued DiCorcia and Pace for
exhibiting and publishing the portrait without Erno’s permission and profiting from
it financially. The lawsuit sought an injunction to halt sales and publication
of the photograph. Erno also wanted $500,00 in compensatory damages and $1.5
million in punitive damages.
The lawsuit was dismissed in February of 2006 by a New York State
Supreme Court judge who said that the photographer’s right to artistic
expression trumped the subject’s privacy rights. Nussenzweig argued that the
use of the photograph interfered with his constitutional right to practice his
religion, which prohibits the use of graven images.
Somehow, this was the first case to directly challenge the right
for photographers to photograph in public as long as it was taken on public
property. If it succeeded, many famous images such as the “subway passenger New
York City 1941”, might not be able to be published or sold.
I personally agree with how the case was settled. I think that if
you are in public, then you should be all right with a photographer taking your
picture without your permission.
