Photographer, painter at odds over Harlem image
It’s a classic black-and-white photo of several elderly Black men standing outside a Harlem store, capturing a long-past, simpler time uptown. But there’s a hitch — now there’s a painting that’s practically a mirror image of the famous “Sunglass Corner” photograph, and it has cropped up on Facebook, and been featured in a few Manhattan art exhibitions.
Photographer Cheryl Miller — who took the classic, copyrighted photograph in 1980 — and painter Nate Ladson — who claims his painting is the reproduction of a photo he once saw in a Harlem history book — are at odds.
Miller, a veteran photographer who has taken hundreds of amazing photographs during a 40-year-long career, was floored to see the “Sunglass Corner,” her signature work, had been copied as a painting, which violates copyright laws. But, Ladson, a longtime artist, said he crafted his painting after an old photo he saw in the 1969 book, “Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900-1968.”
Miller has responded by filing a copyright infringement claim against Ladson with the U.S. Copyright Claims Board. Wrongful activities mentioned in the filing included the creation of “a derivative work.”
“I’m trying to get a lawyer now,” Ladson said last week, noting that, Miller and her attorneys “did send me some papers last week. I got to find out what the problem is. I don’t know.”
Ladson says Miller’s “Sunglass Corner” photo was not the inspiration for his painting. “I got it from ‘Harlem on my Mind,’” said Ladson, adding that he was motivated by a photo from a book.
But when an owner of a copy of “Harlem on My Mind” leafed, page-by-page, through the 258-page publication last week, there was no photograph that resembled the “Sunglass Corner” shot found in the book.
Miller said, “The photo was taken in Harlem [Lenox & 125th St.] in 1980. I was 27 years old.Russell [Simmons] and [the late music executive] Andre [Harrell] bought Limited Edition 8X10 Gelatin Silver Photographs.” The limited edition photos sold for $1,500 each.
In the infringement claim, Miller said, “My collectors bought and paid for the emotional sentiment evoked by this image — four elderly men from a different time standing as present-day sentries to the Village of Harlem, New York.”
In March 2022, Danny Simmons, Russell’s brother and the former chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts, mentioned the selling of the limited-edition photographs in a Facebook post after seeing Ladson’s work.
“Wow. I just ran across this. My girl Cheryl Miller took this photo in 1980,” he wrote. “How this is now showing up as someone’s original painting is crazy. Damn, bro. She ain’t happy. It was copyrighted and everything,” read part of the post.
“By the way, this is the second time,” said Miller, recalling an unauthorized reproduction of her photo in 2002 in Florida. That artist had to destroy all of the copied work and forfeit all his earnings from the copies, said Miller.
Colonial revolt, in print
Herman Hall — the founder and publisher of Everybody’s Caribbean Magazine — has just released his second book, “Julien Fédon - Revolutionary, Patriot and Insurrectionist: The Untold Story of a Mulatto Leader.”
Everybody’s magazine is also touting its anticipated Global Calendar of Caribbean events, its Person of the Year (Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell) and the February issue, featuring the work of longtime Everybody’s Magazine photojournalist Kwame Braithwaite, whose works and achievements were the focus of a recent exhibition at the City of the Museum of New York.
The Fédon tome, published by HH Digital LL, is touted as the “the first comprehensive and immersive biography of Julien Fédon,” who led a revolt against British colonial rule on the island of Grenada in 1795 and 1796.
Hall’s first book was “Belvidere Estate — Fédon’s House,” a memoir about the famous Grenadian estate where the 18th-century rebellion leader Fédon lived. Hall was born and raised on Belvidere Estate.
The book is available in hardcover, softcover, and eBook format, and can be found on Amazon and other retailers.
The December Person of the Year edition and the January Kwame Brathwaite issue are available digitally and in print. Visit Everybody’s website at everybodysmag.com.
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