15 Minutes of Fame
The year was 2000. I was 26 years old and a year removed from receiving my BFA. At the time I was working at the Zimmerli Museum as an Art Handler and had dreams of acting in film or theatre. In my undergrad years I took 4 acting classes with this amazing professor that studied with Stella Adler.
I needed head-shots. In the back of the New York Post I found this fairly cheap photographer advertising her services in NYC.
photographer
If you look at her business card it only has her first name, definitely a fake name. Back then, my private eye skills were lacking big time. Her studio was located in a loft in NYC and looked pretty legit.
She took the black and white head-shots and at the end asked me if she could take an extra roll of color film, free of charge. She fed me some line that my face is interesting and she’ll try to sell these extra color pics of me over seas and it could be great exposure for me. I got a little excited but was unsure of her intentions!
Bellow is one of the B & W head-shots that she took of me that day. The quality is substandard.
headshot
After she took these horrible head-shots she persuaded me to stay a bit longer and pose for the color prints. She, off-course, took out a release form and I signed it nonchalantly. I didn’t even blink because I just wanted extra PICS in my acting portfolio and never thought that these imags will end up anywhere.
Off-course she tells me to make weird and funny faces which comes naturally to me. I’ve been making funny faces since my 9 month stay in my mother’s womb!
extra PIC
She gave me the above digital printout as a memento and send me off. The above photo session occurred on September 21, 2000.
Fast forward to April of 2003. I receive an email from friends in Naxos Greece telling me that my picture is in a magazine called ‘TELE-satellite’. Date of the email April 28, 2003.
kamari letter
I felt excited and angry at the same time. I didn’t know what to do so I contacted my father’s friend Marty. He referred me to a law firm that specializes in this sort of thing. In my excitement I completely forget that I signed a release form with the head-shot photographer.
I call the law firm, set up an appointment and go the following week. On June 4, 2003 they agreed to take on my case on a contingency basis; agreeing to take 25% of whatever money I may get from Samsung.
retainer letter
I signed the above letter and the case against Samsung officially started. It took us (lawyers and I) a month to do research about Samsung and who designed this advert for them. The lawyers strategy was to embark on a letter campaign, scare off Samsung, and force them to agree on a substantial settlement out of court.
We also found the image on Samsung’s website:
samsung website snap
The first letter goes out on July 1, 2003, to Foote, Cone, & Belding, the firm believed to be responsible for designing the advert.
2nd letter to fcb marketing
3-letterto-fcb-marketing-b
On July 15th FCB responded and bought Samsung a little more time denying any involvement in the design of the advert. At the time, FCB did a substantial amount of design and advertising work for Samsung.
4-fcb-response
On July 21st, we send another letter to FCB:
5-2ndletterto-fcb
While all of this was happening I was unsure as to whether I singed a release form or not. I wanted to go ahead with it since we were demanding 250K. That’s a lot of money not to take a chance on. My memory was selective at this point!
Finally, on August 5th my lawyers sent a letter to Samsung directly.
6-final-letter-to-smasung-1
7-final-letter-to-smasung-2
The moment of truth was nearing. It didn’t take too long for Samsung to give us the final decisive reply.
On August 27, 2003 Samsung responded.
8-samsungresponse
Accompanied off-course by the release form that I nonchalantly singed back in 2000!
9-releaseform
I knew it all along but had to try. I am also lucky that the lawyers I hired didn’t get upset and sue me in return. They understood that I forgot about it and also took the chance with me to make some money.
Their final letter to me was sent on August 29, 2003.
10-lawyersfinalletter
To me, it’s a great story to tell my grand kids. I never expected anything to come out of the extra color photographs that the photographer took at the end of our head-shot session. Before I hired the lawyers I went back to her loft where her studio was located and her business moved locations. The door person further informed me that many other people went back looking for the photographer for the same reason. Her main business was not head shots, it was selling stock photography over seas.
The advert was translated in many languages and circulated all over Europe and northern Africa. I bought 10 copies of the TELE satellite magazine from Barnes & Noble as well.
tele-satelite
By the way, I love this story and it makes me feel proud and lucky more then anything else. The money would have been icing on the cake but the experience was fun!
Tags: Lawsuit against Samsung, Samsung, Tarek, Tarek Fahmy