What is up with this guy?
So. I’m in the middle of writing two brand spanking new posts and I needed some photos. I googled “free stock photos” and found this website. I was looking for pictures of groups of children so I clicked the “People” link and started looking through the pages. Now, maybe I’m alone in this, but what kind of vibe do you get from this?
Pretty creepy. Right? Who is this weird guy who’s taking these weird pictures of himself and submitting them to a royalty-free stock photo site? Does he think he’s on a dating service? Could he really think these are the types of photos people are looking for when they search for stock images?
Is he documenting hair loss?
It’s just weird. And it gets weirder.
So, that first photo is from page five. I initially noticed him on page four. (I now know that he first appeared on page two.) At page five, I decided that I had to know more. And then he disappeared. The next two pages were filled with images of people at parades and concerts. There were shots of fireworks and barbecues and some event called, “The Hot Sauce Festival.” He was gone. And then, page eight.
63 images in all. Self-portraits … all of them. I counted. At that point I had become obsessed. He was the star in my own private reality show, “What is up with this guy?” From the upload account he used, I learned that his name was Jon Sullivan. That wasn’t going to help. So I kept flipping through. All these strange little headshots. All taken by Jon, himself. Then I spotted this shot taken at The World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Ga.
How did I miss this before? I guess it’s not as striking as those close ups. It’s weird that he posted just the one non-headshot … And then it hit me. The parades, the concerts, The Hot Sauce Festival, those were all of Jon’s vacations. I clicked on his account and sure enough, he’s a member AND the president of the club. www.public-domain-photos.com is Jon Sullivan’s website. It seems as if Jon has taken all of his personal photos and uploaded them for the entire world to use as they see fit. He notes on his site:
More and more I’ve been getting emails from people saying that they want to use an image commercially and that they need my explicit permission to do so, including signed forms and whatnot. Please stop asking. Public doamin [sic] means you don’t need my permission. And if that’s not good enough, then I guess you can’t use it. The pictures have been used in magazines, newspapers, CDs, image collections, book covers, websites, business cards, software, T-shirts, logos, you name it. All without my explicit permission. I don’t care if you use the photos. Seriously. Use them for whatever you want.
Jon Sullivan isn’t a weirdo. He’s a humanitarian.
July 9th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
This is a particularly nice post. Thanks for the read.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:27 am
A brilliant little bit of detective work. Of course, you WOULD immediately recognize Coca-Cola World. Jon (I assume he prefers that to “Mr. Sullivan” given his disclaimer) has a brilliant strategy. And now that you’ve unmasked him, his plan to achieve fame is finally bearing fruit. NOW who is the humanitarian?