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One of several Great Depression-era murals mounted in the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates Building, once the Des Moines, Iowa, Public Library
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Often referred to as W.P.A. murals, because the artists who created them between 1937 and 1941 were paid by the job-creating New Deal Works Progress Administration, the paintings depict the history of Des Moines from prehistoric times to the mid-1930s. The work was supervised by Iowa native Grant Wood, one of the greatest American artists of the first-half of the 20th century and the creator of the iconic painting "American Gothic."
Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Purchase; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2016; (DLC/PP-2016:103-1).
Forms part of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
In 2015, documentary photographer Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website. It demanded payment of $120. This was how Highsmith came to learn that stock photo agencies Getty and Alamy had been sending similar threat letters and charging fees to users of her images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress for use by the general public at no charge. In 2016, Highsmith has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against both Alamy and Getty stating “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs. “The defendants [Getty Images] have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people,” the complaint reads. “[They] are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees … but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” According to the lawsuit, Getty and Alamy, on their websites, have been selling licenses for thousands of Highsmith’s photographs, many without her name attached to them and stamped with “false watermarks.” (more: http://hyperallergic.com/314079/photographer-files-1-billion-suit-against-getty-for-licensing-her-public-domain-images/)
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