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Royal Mail and the major picture agencies Getty Images and Corbis may have to pay royalties out after a school photograph shot by a keen amateur photographer in Plymouth, England, 50 years ago mysteriously ended up on one of this year’s Coronation anniversary 1st class GB stamps.
The picture – showing three girls working on a giant Coronation mural – was allegedly shot by Leon Till at Hollycroft School in Plymouth in the weeks leading up to the 1953 Coronation and the original photograph has been shown to STAMP MAGAZINE by Mr. Till’s son, Roger, who is questioning the copyright issues surrounding its use on a stamp.
The copyright of the image is believed to lie with the Corbis picture agency (which was founded by Bill Gates in 1989) but speaking to STAMP MAGAZINE Roger Till said: ‘I saw it and thought “I know that photograph”, and I dug out the pictures from my father’s album. I’m a bit concerned that copyright of one of my father’s photos is with this large US company. I’ve sent half a dozen e-mails to Corbis but haven’t had a reply’.
Roger Till has contacted Royal Mail to point out that the photograph used was shot by his father and to try to get to the bottom of the mystery as to how it ended up on a GB stamp. He received an e-mail back from the head of Royal Mail’s intellectual property division stating that it was ‘looking at the situation’. STAMP MAGAZINE also spoke to Corbis who said that the matter was with its lawyers.
In good faith
A Royal Mail spokesperson told STAMP MAGAZINE: ‘We’re definitely looking into it from our end and we’re keen to solve the mystery as well. We take images in good faith and paid the license fee for this’.
Mr. Till believes the image was shot by his father on an old Microcord twin lens reflex camera and, in fact, he is in the picture as a four-year-old boy just to the immediate left of the figure ‘1’ from the ‘1953’ date on the stamp.
Hollycroft School was originally set up by Roger Till’s mother and his father Leon worked as the unofficial photographer for it. The image that has featured on the stamp is identical to the photograph shown to us by Roger Till and the picture also features his father’s handwriting on the back. Roger Till said: ‘I could be proved wrong, but in my mind I’m absolutely 100% certain. My father methodically kept his things and there is nothing anywhere about him selling any of these photographs. If copyright hasn’t been properly cleared someone is being naughty’.
It’s believed that Royal Mail, Getty Images and Corbis do not wish to go down the legal route and provided that Roger Till can provide authentic proof of the origins of the image then they are likely to be prepared to pay out the appropriate royalties.
The controversial stamp was just one of 10 issued on June 2, 2003 to mark 50 years since Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey in London.