If someone makes a photographic reproduction of a painting, and the painter died a hundred years ago, what rights does the photographer have?
Generally, making a photo of something is in itself a creative act and the photographer surely has copyright. But a photographic reproduction is more like a photocopy, even if it requires more skill.
A faithful reproduction cannot be subject to copyright, if copyright of the original painting has expired.
Since this is an important topic for Wikipedia, the German-language Wikipedia covers copyright of images and photographs extensively in their guidelines:
They point out Directive (EU) 2019/790, which in Art. 14 says:
Member States shall provide that, when the term of protection of a work of visual art has expired, any material resulting from an act of reproduction of that work is not subject to copyright or related rights, unless the material resulting from that act of reproduction is original in the sense that it is the author's own intellectual creation.
Wikipedia notes that this has been implemented in German law in 2021.
An exact photographic reproduction of a public domain painting lacks sufficient originality to gain copyright protection.
Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999)
