I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Gregory Colbert speak at the TED conference where he made an extremely rare public appearance talking about his photographic journey and exhibition “Ashes and Snow”. He also spoke about his controversial initiative to start the “Animal Copyright Foundation”, which will aim to collect 1 percent of royalties from companies using images of animals in their ads and distribute these funds to conservation projects around the world, which could become the largest environmental fund in the world. He suggests we should renegotiate our contract with nature. It is common practice to compensate people for fair use of their images in advertising but this has not been the case for nature and animals.
I think this is a brilliant foundation to give back to nature and help keep it sustainable. There’s not much online about this foundation, but lookout for it soon.
more via ethanzuckerman
With all due respect, I think Colbert is a total, not partial, crank. Why not include flowers and insects? Does he honestly think that advertisers would voluntarily tithe 1% of their media budgets to support his kooky foundation? See this for what it is: grandiosity. The business world is to kneel at Colbert’s hem and give HIS foundation billions. Please.
I saw Ashes and Show at the Nomadic Museum while it was out here in Santa Monica.
It was interesting to see different reactions from people. My roommate thought it was pretentious and contrived and didn’t stay long. My sister thought it was inspired and sensitive and got all teary eyed. Personally I had a relaxing hour in a cool space that was complemented with relaxing imagery and music – what else could you ask for to sure a friday night hangover.
Love the blog Tango, you’ve got a great habit of picking off the ripest fruit of the web.
DF