Here Comes A Treasure Hunt


The act of reproduction is fantastic, you see something you like and in todays tech-modern world all you have to do is download it and it is yours; or is it. If I could jam the thousands of legal pages concerning ownership and copyright material, I just might. The moment had come when I drawing near to dispizing the digital age. This is certainly not the most crucial or viable example, but it does tie into the "art" of reproduction. Here is the picture in question. . .
(well I have not perfected placing pics yet). View above image.

This image is a photograph taken by Alexander Rodchenko in 1925 and turned into a poster entitled, "books.'' This was just after a revolution in Russia and poster art was a main form of media meant to show the Russian youth that they could overcome adversity and better their country.

Then, in 2005, the band Franz Ferdinand used the photograph Rodchenko took of Lilya Brik for their album cover you could have it so much better. I was discouraged at this reroduction, because the cover of the album did not copy the entire Rodchenko poster; but did look enough like it to change the meanng for me. This album cover now sits in every cd and record store for all to view; yet you have to do some serious searching to find the original poster, and to get to the bottom of its original meaning.

I can see how reproducing old works of art gives new life to the piece and lets a new generation take part in its design, however in the case of the album cover, the entire use and political meaning of the art is lost. Having said my thoughts on the ease of digital reproduction, I did use the poster, which I downloaded off the internet in order to make my point. Does this make me a hippocrit, or am I potentially spreading a well designed poster for people in other circles to see, or does it not matter because the modern world is so littered with imagery that it is virtually impossible to create an origianl image that is not some way or another created from your unconscious remembrance of an image?

On that note, here are 3 more examples of Rodchenko rip offs. One, the 80's band The Ex used the same image as Ferdinand for one of their album covers as well. Two, Ferdinand also swiped a Rodchenko poster for another album cover Take Me Out. The previous image looks very similar to the poster in this gallery of works by
Rodchenko. Please take note of the copyright information in the box below several of the pictures and make sure to click on the correction links for the wikipedia posting on this very information. Wikipedia lets anyone on the internet post information and not all posts are entirely accurate.