The case highlights the hazy definition of privacy rights in dense cities like New York

By Julia Halperin, theartnewspaper.com, 09 August 2013

New York’s Supreme Court decided last week that the photographer Arne Svenson was within his rights to display and advertise a series of photographs he took of his neighbours without their permission. In May, a local couple sued Svenson for violating their privacy after recognizing their young children in two of the images. The judge Eileen Rakower dismissed Martha and Matthew Foster’s suit on 1 August, writing that the family’s right to privacy “yields to an artist’s protections under the First Amendment in the circumstances presented here”.

Svenson spent a year and a half observing his neighbours with a telephoto lens as they ate breakfast, read and watched television in the glass building across the street from his Tribeca apartment [....]

The judge concluded that “while it makes plaintiffs cringe to think their private lives and images of their small children can find their way into the public forum of an art exhibition, there is no redress under the current laws of the State of New York”. She added that publications and advertisements could reprint Svenson’s images: “Since art is protected by the First Amendment, any advertising that is undertaken in connection with promoting that art is permitted,” she wrote. A spokesperson for the family said an appeal is being considered [....]