I think what the world needs now if not “love sweet love,” and a good dose of repentance is at least a good business story, one that you can believe in. For all the horrible stories about corporations, banks, and those that run them, I am about to tell you a story about where the bad guys turn out to be good and where innocence is a virtue. The only moral from this story is that if you give it all away as you walk in the door, there is nothing to receive as you walk out. It is a story about what you have but are about to loose.

Stieglitz (at least I think it was him) once said that a photographer has 25 great pictures in him, that a life’s opus distilled down to its essence is left with a pedigree of 25 great works that endure through the tapestry of time.

Well, If I am a photographer in the first place (which is extremely questionable with great aspirations, and I know one when I see it, but whether I have achieved the Holy Grail of being a photographer is a whole other matter) I would assume that one of the pictures I have already written about would be one of my 25 greatest hits.

As I was stubborn and strong enough to fight for control, this picture has always remained my property. Not so much lately, but for years it was licensed by every conceivable type of business throughout the world, and purchased by collectors until now there is only one editioned print left to be sold. It is easily one of my greatest hits, well enough of the prologue and onto the story.

One evening in the fall of 1999 in a far away time where photographers were still mostly shooting film and protecting their copyrights, I received a call at about 10 o’clock at night. The caller asked me if I was Rodney Smith the photographer. When I replied yes, the woman introduced herself by saying that she was Mr. Y.C. Lee’s secretary calling from Seoul Korea,  and that Mr. Lee was just getting on a plane in Korea and flying to New York to see me. She told me that his plane would land the next evening around 9 p.m. and Mr. Lee would like to come immediately to my house.

I told her I was very happy to meet Mr. Lee, but asked if he might come the following morning as I held to the American dictum of early to bed and early to rise. I also asked her if she knew what the visit was regarding, to which she replied that she did not but said she would tell Mr. Lee to come the next morning. The only other information she left with me was a New York phone number, which she said I could call the next morning if I had any questions. With that I said goodbye and goodnight and went to sleep.

The next morning I called the number in Manhattan, which turned out to be the telephone number of the CFO for D.D.B. Needham (a large worldwide advertising agency). I spoke briefly with him, and he told me he had received an email from Y.C. Lee, President of D.D.B. Needham, Korea, asking that he accompany him to my studio the next morning.

He said he had no idea what this was about, but said that if it was all right, they would meet with me the next morning.

So the following morning, a large limousine pulled into my driveway and out walked two men dressed in dark blue suits. I welcomed them into the studio and Mr. Lee immediately bowed, and said he had come to personally apologize to me. One of his art directors unbeknown to him until very recently, had copied a picture, A.J. on a Ladder, and had made an entire T.V. commercial in Paris for Korea’s largest newspaper based completely on this picture. With this comment he handed me a cassette with the commercial on it.

We all looked at it together and it was a direct copy of my photograph, although shot in a different place. He said again that he wanted to apologize in person and had flown 16 hours from Korea to do so. He then asked what I would like in compensation. I told him and he immediately had the CFO write me a check. With that it was all over, and they quickly left with Mr. Lee going directly back to the airport to return to Korea.

Now in my 45 years of experience as a photographer, nothing had ever happened like that either before that event or since. I am very protective of my copyright, and over the years have fought a number of battles and have won every one I have decided to pursue. Usually I am met with virulent denial or questioning how I was made aware of the infringement. By the way, as a side note, many times I have been made aware of infringement by other photographers who have been kind enough to inform me of it.

No one had ever traveled sixteen hours to apologize to me for something I probably would never have seen, as the commercial was only shown in Korea.

So you see there is still hope for mankind to do the right thing. There is honesty in the world in small places. There is hope for us all if you have something to hold onto.