Alec Soth's "The Frank Album" is a project based on a photograph album he purchased. It was made by a Westerner whilst in Japan in the 1950s and shows 'Frank' with Japanese people in both formal and casual settings. Soth posts the images on his website and asks participants to create a story around each image. The final result is published as "The Frank Album". I haven't seen the book myself and other than the original production website (https://thefrankalbum.wordpress.com) access to it via the web seems to be difficult.
In this instance I am not particularly phased by ethical issues arising from using the work of a real person for a creative project such as this. It is almost 70 years since these images were taken. The fact that Soth was able to purchase the album means that it was more than likely discarded by the family and was part of the vast found photo market. Once a photograph album such as this is released onto a market for consumption it fails to become a private object. Although if this was my project and after publication the original family objected to its new creative use I'm not sure how I would feel.
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