Travel photograph model release issue

Question

i have a lot of travel photographs ,i thinking to publish them in a book

but my problem is i dont have model release for lot of photographs ,though i have verbally sometime.

also i photograph pedesterian or beggars etc which i never sign for model release .

how to deal with this thing .is it absolutely necessary to sign every person beggar or person that happened to be photographed unintentionally..etc.

assuming my publication can be of any kind or even confined to private publication

Answer 1

dustgate,

You really should talk to an lawyer who specializes in this.   Releases are about laws such as people's rights to privacy.    Whether or not the subject has a claim to you breaking their rights depends on a number of things and unfortunately, laws relating to this can vary from state to state and area to area.  

Generally, speaking, you are okay if people can not be recognized, you are not using the images for advertising (sounds like you are not),

They are taken in public or other situations where there is no expectation of privacy, you are not defaming someone.

If the book you are thinking of doing is through a publisher, they should be able to help with this and are much more likely to get in trouble than you are if any images violate anyone's rights.

I'm not sure what you mean for private publication, but if you are talking about just putting them in a photo book for your own viewing it's unlikely you will get in any kind of trouble because it's usually making images public that is considered to defame someone or invade their privacy, not meer ownership.