by Steve Meltzer

Singing the Slide-Labeling Blues

The other day I got a package of craftwork to photograph and the artist sent along some of their old slides for me to review. As if there wasn’t enough stress in putting together a jury submission, every show has a different slide-labeling requirement.

These slides had been around the submission circuit so long that the artist’s name and address were incised in a quarter inch of White-Out. I’ve seen other artists’ slides adorned with bits of half-torn labels and ones that seem to belong to a photographer rather than the artist.

A copyright notice on your slides is sufficient to provide legal notice of copyright protection.

A properly labeled slide should include the copyright notice, an indication of which side is the front, and an arrow (or the word “top”) to indicate the top of the image.

Once you send off your submission with its particular labeling, is there any reason that shows have to add to your aggravation by mishandling the slides once they receive them?

And while most shows are able to cash your entry fee within hours of opening your submission, how come they can’t get around to returning your slides until weeks after the show?

A plea for standard labeling of slides

Some of you might remember that several years ago I wrote an opinion piece for The Crafts Report suggesting a standard approach to labeling slides. Well that was a lead balloon ... it went nowhere.

Over the last few years I’ve seen other publications make exactly the same case and they got the same response from the show world. Nada, nil, niente.

But hey, why let a little thing like failure to be heard stop anyone from trying again? So, let’s talk about labeling slides.

Basic information needed on slides

The most basic information needed on a jury slide is your name, a copyright notice and indication of which surface is the “front” and which side is the “top.”

If you shoot slides yourself ask your processing lab if they can put a copyright identification on the slide mounts when they process your film. Most larger photo processing labs and big chains can easily do this.

A copyright notice should read, “© 2002 Your Name” or “Photo © 2002 Your Name” or “Artwork © 2002 Your Name.”

Current U.S. Copyright law considers this label to be a legal notice of copyright protection. Individual items like a book or a movie are further protected by actual registration with the Copyright Office.

Luckily, you don’t have to register everything you photograph. Photographers made clear how overwhelming a task it would be for the Copyright Office to deal with the billions of images shot each year.

Other methods to label slides

My lab can imprint copyright notices, but I also use self-adhesive labels — Avery # 8167 or a similar type — to annotate slides. These labels fit perfectly on a slide mount’s wider side.

My Millennium Edition of Windows contains a label template program in the word processor so its easy to use these labels. Avery can also provide software for using these labels. With my program, I can get about three lines of text on the label.

Indicate which way is up on the slide

Besides labeling every slide with your copyright, you need to indicate the front and top of the slide. You would be amazed at how much trouble people have viewing a slide correctly and finding its acetate side to get the proper left-to-right orientation. Somewhere on the front of the slide mount, write or print on the label the word “front.” In addition, indicate the top of the slide by placing the word “top” or an arrow pointing up on the slide mount’s upper right corner.

Don’t let others hog labeling space

Many photographers put their copyright on the slides they shoot for craftspeople. If you work with a professional photographer who insists on retaining copyright and putting their copyright on every slide and print, tell them that their copyright notice needs to be discreet.

Insist that their logo, address and phone number not be part of the copyright notice and proscribe any proclamations like “All Rights Reserved,” “Violators Will Be Prosecuted” or “No Parking Without Sticker.” These take up space you need for labeling and it confuses the kids who work for shows when it comes to returning your images.

I don’t put my copyright on the slides or prints when I photograph crafts. I give the artist the copyright to the photos because I feel that the artist has paid me to make these images and I am obligated to give the artist the pictures they have paid for, without restriction.

I also have no reason to nickel-and-dime artists every time they need a duplicate slide or they want to create and send out a postcard. I give them the photos and tell them to go out and become famous.

If they do well, they’ll come back for more photos and I’ll get to shoot again. Shooting photos is how I earn money, not by making duplicate slides or prints.

Tell everyone to handle your slides with care

Once you get your slides from the lab, handle them with great care. Pick up the slides carefully by the mounts and if by any awful chance you drop them or get them dirty, gently clean them off with a little airbrush or a puff of canned air.

You can get inexpensive, lint-free, cotton gloves at most camera shops that help keep greasy fingerprints off the delicate slides.

When I get slides from the lab, I immediately put them in plastic slide pages. These clear plastic, three-ring-binder-ready, 8.5x11-inch pages hold 20, 35mm slides. There are several brands on the market that are sold in packages of 10, 25 or 100 pages.

Generally, the pages cost about $8 for 25 pages. All types work equally well, although pages marked “archival” are a bit better. These are designed to last longer and not release the nasty gases that some types of plastic exude.

Plastic pages help protect slides

Besides storing slides in these pages, consider cutting several pages in half — into 10-slide sections — for use in submitting slides for jurying.

Write your name and address on these half pages with a permanent marker to help the jury know whose slides go in what page. Not only will these pages protect the slides in transit and keep your images together, they will slow down a greasy-fingered juror.

Which brings up the point of how shows add insult to injury. Jury slides represent an investment of both your time and money. You have either paid a professional or borne the cost of doing your own photography. Knowing that slides are pretty fragile and require careful handling, you would think juries would take more care in handling them.

I have seen slide trays getting loaded for jurying and it isn’t pretty. Typically, a member of the show’s organizing committee sits down by a table covered with submissions and a couple of slide trays and begins to open the envelopes.

In a moment of either high comedy or low tragedy, submission envelopes are ripped open and their contents shaken onto the table. The check is removed and the application peered at and noted.

The slides are picked up barehanded, held to a light, and turned over and over to ascertain which side of the slide is which. I have yet to see anyone in this process wear a white cotton glove to make sure they don’t fingerprint a slide.

Although it may be a waste of time, I’d also suggest that you submit a note with your jury entry reminding the show and the jurors that you expect that your slides will be handled with all due care. And that in cases of really egregious mishandling, you’ll bill them for the damage or loss.

They will probably ignore the notice, but you never can tell when it just might come in handy.