Photojournalist John D. McHugh is tired of having his images stolen. Too often, he says, his work will pop up on websites that never asked for permission.
"I can't take that lying down," says McHugh, who is originally from Ireland but is now based in London.
That's why he's just come out with an iPhone app called Marksta that lets photographers place a watermark on their mobile photos before sending them out on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram.
The app, which allows users to customize their watermark in a number of different ways — users can change the font, size, color, add a drop shadow, etc. — got a warm welcome when more than 5,000 users downloaded it for free on its first day. Now it costs $1.99.
In a world where images fly around the internet at a breakneck pace, McHugh knows he's fighting an uphill battle. The culture today is such that people just assume they can share photos without permission. And to keep themselves from going crazy fighting the masses, many photographers have decided to put a creative commons license on their work and hope for the best.
McHugh says he's not against his photos being viewed. But when they're robbed off his sites with no identifier on them he says it does him no good. A watermark at least spreads his name and he says he always tries to keep the imprint small and in a place that doesn't ruin the photo.
"If I put photos out there, I want to be recognized," he says. "My attitude is that this is part of a marketing strategy."
As a photojournalist, McHugh says he's not getting rich. He would have been a commercial photographer if money were the end goal. But he is risking his life in places like Afghanistan to tell important stories, and he thinks he deserves credit for the work he does.
"I'm not a photographer for shits and giggles," he says.
For us here at Wired, we find the general practice of watermarking horrendous. It ruins the photos and the chance of someone hiring you off of a watermark, paying attention to it or being dissuaded from stealing by it are approaching nil. It tends to read tacky and desperate. There are also documented cases of viral photo spreads where the photographer had little control of the how the images were shared via social media but still still found a way to benefit in the end.
At the same time, we can see where photographers like McHugh are coming from. Photojournalists should be paid for their hard work and they can't pay the bills with random, anonymous Tumblr shares. There's also something to be said for establishing a personal brand, though the best will aspire to making the photos themselves the actual brand. Quality tends to speak for itself.
We want to hear what our readers think. Is this an app you would use?
