An invasion of privacy lawsuit brought about by neighbors of a New York photographer has been dropped. The controversy began when Arne Svenson photographed his neighbors without their knowledge, and displayed them in a show exhibit.

Ruling that the photographs were protected by the First Amendment, and that the images did not violate New York State civil rights laws, New York State court judge, Judge Eileen A. Rakower dismissed the suit. The judge was also quoted as stating, “An artist may create and sell a work of art that resembles an individual without his or her written consent.”

Using a telephoto lens, Svenson, a fine art photographer, photographed people inside their apartment buildings in the New York neighborhood of Tribeca. The subjects recognized themselves in the images that were exhibited last spring at the Julie Saul Gallery.

Martha and Matthew Foster sued for violation of their rights of privacy under New York state law, and were seeking an injunction to shut down the current exhibit and any future exhibits and sale of the photographs after they recognized images of their children on display. The Fosters argument which claimed that unauthorized images of their children were used for commercial purposes. However, Judge Rakower rejected the claim on the grounds that New York state civil rights laws, “yield to an artist’s protections under the First Amendment under the circumstances presented here.”

Since his court won, Svenson has removed his exhibit and also removed all images from his online sites. He also has stated that he will not print or distribute the images in the future, and that he is no longer photographing his neighbors secretly through their windows.

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