Photographer vs Model

Who is the creative? Who is the rights holder? Who made this image?

If a model and a photographer both weren’t there, minus the self-portrait model, how would the image exist.

If the photographer were not there, technically the image would not exist. Let’s take a real life example of my talented model friend, Astrid Kallsen, and something that happened this past week. Astrid found a beautiful patch of black eyed susans and wanted to model there, but before any photos were taken, a beautiful woman existed in a patch of beautiful flowers, creating an idyllic scene. Technically there were three of us, but that’s a philosophical debate for later down the page.

If I were in the field, alone, and took photos of the flowers that image would exist, and if Astrid were in the field merely existing in all her awesomeness, that would exist, but that moment wouldn’t linger past when she left, nor would it be shareable, save in parable, like I am sharing now.

In Astird’s case, because she’s such a strong model with visions and makes things happen, I argue that any photographer regardless of skill level could make some fantastic images if Astrid was in front of their camera. But from my point of view the images may be owned more by Astrid than the photographer. She had the idea, she drug us out at sunrise (yes this happened on another day), and did her magical Astrid model dance, plus pulled the wardrobe out of her huge suitcase.