Photographing a public school

I have just been hired by a construction firm to photograph a new

roof of a public school. This firm wants to show the photo on one

of their brochures. Normally, getting a photo release is no

problem. Unfortunately school is out for the summer and nobody is

around to sign one. I have to get these photos taken within two

weeks and summer vacation still is a month and a half longer. The

question I have is it legal to photograph the roof without a release

for commercial use.

School may be out, but there will still be people working at the district admin. offices. It should be in the phone book.

Most, if not all schools, have staff working over the summer. Adminstrative staff is often on a longer contract than the teachers and spend a good portion of the summer working at school. The suggestion about the administration is a good one since that's who you'll probably need to check with anyway.

Does your school system have a board of education office? That would be the office to check with on getting your release approved.

John,

 

Can't the construction company get you on the premises w/o hassle? I'm no law expert, but that's also public property. We take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge all the time and no one from the city has to sign a release. I would ask a rep from the construction firm to go out with you and if someone harasses you (not likely), then the rep from the firm could easily deal with it. IMO. This might be of merit. I work for an aerial photography firm and we shoot property not owned by the clients all the time. I've never seen a situation where we needed a release to sell the photos to that client or any other. I don't think you'll have an issue.

 

Chris

Realize that, at worst, you don't need a release to PHOTOGRAPH

the building. You never need a release to take a picture. If

a release is needed, it's only needed to USE the picture commercially.

So go ahead and take the picture now while you have the

opportunity. If you need the release, you may be able to

get it later on, when school is in session.

Public property? No, it's not. It's school district property. He wants to enter the property for a commercial job unrelated to the business of the district. The district office is the place to check for permission to use the picture (and resolve any issues related to access to the property if existing contracts don't establish liability coverage).

 

So it's not necessarily simple but it also shouldn't be any kind of problem either.

Check with the construction company. They may (should, actually) have written into their contract that they will be able to take photographs of the job for record and promotional purposes. That would make you a subcontractor. Either that or several other conditions of situation should allow the company license to get you up there and take shots for them (customary and essential part of the job, required for records, etc.). If not, I'm certain that the foreman absolutely MUST have a connection to whoever is supervising the job on the BoE side. It's probably just a simple matter of a phone call.

 

And I would say that it's the responsibility of the construction company to think about that and get permission, not the photographer. That would be completely different if you were a fashion photographer trying to do a clothing shoot on a construction site, but in this case the client is the one with the connections and the specific need. -BC-

Thanks for all the input. I have been able to obtain releases and the job is a go.