Appropriated art

A few years ago I shot an assignment for The Independent in London about a man in Montana who had been the Marlboro Man in advertising photos in the 1970's.  Along with my portraits, I sent them a couple of duplicate photos of advertisements the man had been in. 

A few years later The Independent did a story about the artist Richard Prince.  Prince is famous for his appropriated art.  He sometimes uses images from advertising and sells the "art" as his own.  Some of his appropriated photos sell for over $1 million dollars. In the slide show with the story the Independent used one of the duplicate photos I had sent them.  The photo credit on the old Marlboro ad reads "Robin Loznak".  It's possibly a Sam Abell photo, but thanks to The Independent I have appropriated the picture.  I'm still waiting for my millions.

This Richard Prince "photo" was copied from a Marlboro ad and sold for over $1 million in an auction in 2005.

Photographer Sam Abell talks about his photograph being used by Richard Prince.