Singer Bob Dylan accused of plagiarizing photographs

Singer Bob Dylan accused of plagiarizing photographs

Singer Bob Dylan is being accused of plagiarism after several paintings in his recent art show were found to have “striking resemblances” to works by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dmitri Kessel and Léon Busy. An example is Dylan’s painting titled Opium(above left), which appears to be directly copied from Busy’s Vietnam (above right).

Dylan had copied six photographs — one of which an artificial Photoshop edit — from his Flickr stream.

In response, the gallery hosting the show changed the exhibition’s description from a “visual diary” of Dylan’s travels to a “visual reflection”. A spokesperson tells The Guardian:

“While the composition of some of Bob Dylan’s paintings are based on a variety of sources, including archival, historic images, the paintings’ vibrancy and freshness come from … everyday scenes he observed during his travels.”

Dylan could have avoided this mess by simply giving credit where credit was due asking permission.