I've highlighted before NCC's tendency to crowd-source free content, they had a wheeze where
Flickr members were asked for permission to use their pics on bus stops. Many people suggested that they should be offering some payment but this fell on deaf ears.
Now we have the
Windows of Despair Opportunity initiative.
As you will be aware, the arse fell out of the economy recently and Nottingham has quite a few empty shops. WoO is a scheme to tart these up with local artwork.
Now a positive part of this is the use of some shop units to showcase local designers' work. Such artists will presumably be looking for commissions and sales so they can clearly gain from a bit of free space too market their stuff.
However, like the Flickr bus stop scheme NCC wants local photographers to give up their content for nothing so it can be plastered up in empty shop windows.
I could live with this if they at least made it into a competition with prizes for pics awarded say, weekly or monthly. At least there'd be a bit more of an incentive both financially and with kudos.
It sends the message that photographer's work just isn't valued and that's just not good enough.
