Snake Dance by Gedemerta (with a distracting bright spot that someone has added). As you can see, this Pemphis acidula is an exceptional bonsai. It’s also famous. We’ve featured it at least twice and it’s all over facebook and elsewhere.
Many of the artists who style these trees are professionals trying to make a living.
What’s wrong (in addition to the unnecessary bright spot)? This photo was posted on facebook by someone who goes by Aus Bonsai, one of several regulars who put up photos of bonsai. There are many others, including one self-named Bonsai Master.
Facebook is more than just kittens and kids. It’s a format for sharing photos of great and not so great bonsai. The problem is that so many people who put up photos of bonsai don’t bother to attribute. Nor do the vast majority of people who ‘like’ ‘share’ and even comment, bother to ask the obvious questions.
This tendency is especially egregious in this case. The tree is distinctive and very well known. Finding out who the artist is (Gedemerta) might require some effort, but lacking that effort there’s a very easy way out. Here’s how you might do it: ‘Look what I found. Anyone know who the artist is’? This is at least honest and won’t give the false and perhaps prevalent impression that the tree belongs to the person who posted it (laziness compounded by egotism).
If you are skeptical about the need for attribution, you might consider this: Many of the artists who style these trees are professionals who are trying to make a living. Simple courtesy and respect for the art and the artist requires that we honor their effort.
BTW and mea culpa.Though I always try to attribute, in this case (and perhaps some others) I may have contributed to the problem (see the caption below).
Here’s the original and here’s where I must confess to being part of the problem. As you can see, Mr Gedemerta put his name on the photo. I removed it in a Bark post a while back. In my defense, I fully attributed the tree and showed this photo in the same post. Still… My apologies to Mr Gedemerta.
Wow, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel on things bonsai enthusiasts care about. You didn’t mention the solution, only complain about the problem. If the artists don’t like the way their work is being used, let them issue a DMCA takedown notice.
Hi John,
I think you misunderstand. I am asking people to consider the artist and make a little effort to attribute. That’s the solution. Nothing more. Probably futile, but I think it’s worth a mention.
And as long as we’re having this discussion, how is it that you know what bonsai enthusiasts care about?
amen wayne !!!
aside from bonsai, i have done tons of GRATIS photography for various community events and such and when i turn over the disc of pictures, ALL I ASK is for photo credit when used, which rarely happened even though the pics were being used in brochures, fliers, ads, etc…
so i stopped doing it :-(
which is also why facebook should be avoided…
everything is up for grabs… whether it’s your art or your personal info…
shave the back of zuckerberg’s head and you might find 3 numbers tattooed there ;-)
kevin
arbor arts collective
The serious enthusiasts should (and most do) care about this issue because they want to know who is doing what and may want to reach out to the artist of a particular tree or trees for their services. The artists are usually too busy creating, not policing Facebook to ensure their work is being properly attributed. It feels like a form of plagiarism when a picture is posted and there is no description and it seems to happen too often.
John, something else to consider: takedown notices and similar measures can be hard to enforce when the real identity of the poster is unknown, and/or there are international borders involved.
Besides — why *shouldn’t* bonsai artists be treated with basic respect?
Bobby, Kevin, Steve
Agreed and thanks.
I totally agree. The names of the artists are very important and hope john makes the effort next time.
Gaffer