[Leica] When should a printer refuse to print a photograph?

[mak at teleport.com (Mark Kronquist)]

GISI will be happy to print it call Chris Babbitt 503 598 0636


Printers are on VERY thin ground if they censor work

It must me illegal (ie child porn), unethical (how to murder a political 
leader) or immoral (how to poison a city water supply) to be rejected.

Imagine the outcry we only print for white folk/jews/ Latinas etc.







On Aug 27, 2010, at 11:12 AM, kyle cassidy wrote:

> I got word yesterday, via Twitter, that the printers hired to do the
> program for the American Repertory Theater's production of Cabaret
> (which I had shot the images for) had refused to print the book
> because of one of my photographs, which they found objectionable
> ("censurable" was the actual word they used).
> 
> It's Cabaret, you know, a play that has Nazi solders, nudity, cross
> dressing, sex and drug use -- it's been playing since the mid 1960's
> and Bob Fosse made a movie of it -- so I'm guessing you know what
> you're getting into when you're printing the souvenir program guide.
> But they were resolute. They'd print it if some text was moved to
> cover certain parts of the female anatomy in one image but that was
> it. I was a bit baffled -- as far as photographs go (of the sort that
> might be used for the program guide in a play about Nazi's and
> strippers that has a Parental Warning notice at the theater door) it
> was pretty tame and certainly not something that you couldn't find in
> any issue of Vogue -- I was also a bit surprised that a printer would
> offer opinions usually left to the art director. My involvement in the
> project was over weeks before so I wasn't on the front lines -- rather
> I watched it unfold on Twitter -- and it unfolded with a big bang as
> theater people, designers, and whomever else picked up the ball and
> started making a loud noise. In the face of the mini Internet
> firestorm the issue got resolved, like a bit of flotsam caught in a
> bend in the stream that gets freed eventually by the rush of water and
> the thing was gone -- but it was very interesting to watch unfold.
> 
> More thoughts on the matter and lots of photos (some possibly Not Safe
> for Work, depending on where you live) are collected here:
> 
>  http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/616860.html
> 
> and I'm very interested in your thoughts on the rights &
> responsibilities of the person in the Photomat booth (so to speak) --
> at what point can or should they put their foot down and say "I'm not
> printing this trash."
> 
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