Wherever history is happening, photographers are there to capture it for posterity.
This is pretty much the norm for events ever since someone could comfortably port a camera somewhere and start shooting photos. And political events such as those that took place in Washington, DC in the United States were definitely the kinds of things photographers would want to capture for history if anything else.
But, as with anything politically related, feelings around what happened are really heightened and people might not be thinking things through – especially if they are calling for the arrest of a photographer/riot participant named Via Getty.
Now, the mistake here is probably obvious to anyone in our field but let’s just sit back for a moment and take this in for what it is.
Actual Twitter users, resharing posts featuring photos licensed from Getty Images, were mistaking the attribution text “Via Getty” for being the name of the photographer that is apparently not only everywhere at this event but also preset at almost every major historical occurrence of major and minor and insignificant importance in the whole world. No wonder we’re struggling to get work in photography. Who knew about this Via Getty and the amazing ability to be anywhere and everywhere at all times.
To be fair, the mistake might be traced back to a tweet by Ryan Lizza, @RyanLizza, commenting on a photo of a man taking the US House of Representatives Speaker’s podium that states “Via Getty, one the rioters steals a podium from the Capitol.” If you’re not completely up on who or what Getty is you might mistake that as naming the subject of the picture.
We really have to thank PetaPixel for collecting some of these. You can read them here.
Our favorite, by far, is this one:
“And now we know his name is Via Getty (wtf kind of name is that anyway?) can’t someone just go to his house, arrest him on his return and bring Nancy back her podium?”
The oft-used refrain of “What kind of name is Via Getty?” is repeated throughout many of the tweet replies.
We’ll just leave it at that.
What do you think of Twitter users mistaking the accreditation to Getty as the licensing agency behind the photos as being the name of the photographer that took the photo? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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