About two years after publishing a photo of himself reminiscent of Edvard Munch’s The Scream on the Flickr photo-sharing website, Noam Galai from Israel discovered that his face was ‘for sale’ in several stores around the world, as well as on the Web and was spotted in Teheran.
His face has been sighted on T-shirts, posters, playing cards, and as graffiti art sprayed on several walls on the streets of Teheran. Needless to say, none of the photo’s fans were aware its subject’s nationality.
Galai, an Israeli photographer born in Jerusalem, told Israel’s Y-Net website that he has been taking pictures his entire life. After serving in the IDF’s infantry unit he moved to New York for a one-year stint in a high tech company, which became a four-and-a-half year stint.
In addition to reaching a country that is not overly fond of Israel, Galai’s face is on t-shirts, posters, magazine covers and some high-school assignments all over the world.
Apparently, something in the photograph appeals to thousands of people. According to Flickr, Galai’s face was viewed some 7,400 times. “When I googled ‘scream graffiti’ I found many results,” Galai recounts.
He discovered that someone who apparently took a liking to his portrait on Flickr had started selling it on a T-shirt for a price of up to $40. “Needless to say, this was done without asking for permission or paying me,” Galai says.
In response, he decided to print his own shirts for his friends and family, but said he was selling them cheaply.
Galai says that at first he considered suing the distributors of the shirt, but eventually decided not to, calling it “… a waste of time and a headache. It is better to take it as a compliment and move on,” he told Y-Net, adding that, “Overall, this story is pretty flattering. Most of the things that were done are pretty cool and creative, so it doesn’t bother me so much.”
If you come across a picture of him on the street, on a garment, poster, or any other item, Galai would love to hear about it.