The fashion company DKNY will donate $25,000 to a YMCA on behalf of photographer Brandon Stanton after using his works without permission. Stanton, who lives in New York and runs a popular photo blog titled Humans of New York, was approached by DKNY a few months earlier when the company hoped to buy 300 of Stanton’s photographs for a worldwide storefront display. The photographer found their $15,000 offer too low and Stanton and DKNY were unable to reach a monetary agreement.
On Monday, February 25, 2013 a fan of Stanton’s blog sent him a picture of a DKNY storefront in Bangkok, which was full of his photographs. Rather than seeking legal action against DKNY for using his work without permission and compensation, Stanton asked his Facebook fans to share the story while urging the company to donate $100,000 on his behalf to a YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
After 28,907 people shared Stanton’s story, DKNY issued an apology and vowed to donate $25,000 in Stanton’s name to the YMCA of his choice. The company claimed that the use of Stanton’s work was a mistake and that the Bangkok outpost accidently used an internal mock up as a storefront display. The mock up, which included Stanton’s images, was meant to show the direction of the company’s spring visual program.
