Hey guys.
I'm interested in your thoughts on this.
I've been working with The Underwater Project crew for the last 6 months around Sydney and South Australia shooting underwater lifestyle images, basically the motivation was to document life below the surface as we're (in Australia anyway) bound by the water and wave soaked lifestyle, but we're so inept to survive in the environment. From the first few tests we knew we had an interesting concept, and focused on a similar theme.
Just got word that a magazine we pitched the Underwater Project to (and was turned down) back in January is bringing out an all underwater issue next month; which looks to be the exact same concept, with no reference to us.
Without slander or legal action we're aiming to get the series viral through a Vimeo video and steal the thunder before their issue comes out, if their readers have already seen the same themed photos through our series, as they look through the magazine the impact will be so much less.
We've asked if people could help support creative rights and re-post the video to their network, Facebook or Myspace profile, blogs, any outlet they have with links back to the fan-page for the back-story, we're aiming for 100,000 views by the end of the week, after that who knows how many hits we'll get, anything to steal the limelight away from the magazine.
This affects us all, photographers and creatives alike, when we pitch an idea in full faith that if the concept isn't picked up, then it won't go ahead and we still retain "ownership" of the idea; at least in a perfect world...I'll stop myself there, realism just set in.
The fact that they turned us down and then (I assume) jumped on the phone to their staff photographers and told them to shoot the same style series really isn't cool.
Any input or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure this isn't an isolated event. Forgive me if you've read this on other forums, the power of a desktop activist switching networks with the click of a button.
Thanks in advance,
Mark Tipple.
Uwp Crew.
http://www.facebook.com/theunderwaterproject