In 2006, British photography Chris Floyd shot a story for the British version of GQ magazine. The reportage, called The Minutemen, looks at a citizen group whose main concern is illegal immigration in the US, the photographer tells BJP. ‘In the course of the story, the journalist – Samjiv Bhattacharya – and I went to Mexico to a town called Altar, which serves as a staging post for migrants on their way to the border. We spoke to and photographed a few of them in the town square.”

The image, shown above, was published in the October 2006 issue of GQ before being made available – for editorial purposes only – through Getty Images.

But, earlier this month, Floyd was alerted by US friends and colleagues after they saw his image used by two Republican senate campaigns – that of Sharron Angle, who is running in Nevada, and David Vitter in Louisiana. “In Angle’s ad, the three young men are labelled ‘Illegal Aliens’, even though the picture caption on the Getty site clearly states that this is a portrait of three Mexican citizens taken in Mexico,” says Floyd.

BJP understands that both the photographer and Getty Images never allowed for the image to be used in a commercial for political purposes – and in fact, says Floyd, the Republican Party, as far as he is aware, has not purchased a license for the image.

The alleged breach of copyright has led Getty Images to file a claim with video hosting services such as YouTube, where the ad was published. The videos have now been removed.

“We take the matter of protecting copyright in the works of our contributing photographers very seriously and we are working as quickly as possible to address and resolve the situation,” Getty’s vice president Alison Crombie tells BJP.

However, Floyd tells BJP that beyond the financial aspect of the illegal usage, his credibility as a photojournalist has been compromised by the commercials.  “The statement in the ad that these men were ‘illegal aliens’ is demonstrably untrue,” he says. “The photograph was taken in Altar, Mexico. At the time the picture was taken they were Mexican citizens photographed in Mexico.”

He adds: “The thing that concerns me the most is that because we now live in a world where we know that political campaigns are big, high profile, professionally-run operations, people might also then assume that the same thoroughness has been applied to the acquisition of promotional and advertising materials, including campaign imagery. If you follow that assumption to it's natural conclusion, then you might include in it the thought that someone like me has given his full and informed approval to the use of the image because who would be mad enough to run an extensive television advertising campaign without actually clearing the imagery used in it? Now, those same observers could then think, 'well that guy is quite clearly not an informed and impartial journalist at all.  He's covering everything from the position of what could, subjectively be termed, an extremist agenda.' And, suffice to say, included in that smattering of observers of the situation would be the kind of people who previously thought that they could commission me to cover a story for them and, in the process, be impartial enough to photograph/report both sides of it in, ironically enough, a way that could be termed ‘Fair and Balanced’.”

Additionally, says Floyd, the image, as a result of its illegal usage, won’t be able to live within its original context it was a part of “because it has been pulled away from that, against its will and my permission, and is now orbiting around Planet Sharron Angle / David Vitter Campaigns.”

For more on the case, read Chris Floyd's blog.