a nice little chat describing exactly how you feel.
keep the conversation friendly and open but do express your future desire to be credited with any published work product.

I like the handy dandy little release contract that I have signed with various photographers when they come to shoot a project that they are getting paid for by their publication or for their own studio stock work.
It stipulates that when any said project photo is published a credit noting my company must also be published.

It's fair.
They get the dough to ply their trade and shoot our project and I get the reassurance if at any time in the future a stock photographer is called upon for a project photo that might fit the bill, that we will be credited for the design work.

This substantially cuts down on the amount of unwanted surprises.

In your case it was a contractor who took liberties with your work product, in the future inform him that you would prefer to be credited for the design work so that you can continue to have a cordial give and take professional relationship with them.

In the long run it will be benficial to both parties to keep a good open dialogue .

I think I would talk to him about it. This is a touchy subject. Would you have considered putting his name on your brochure if you included a photo of that job before you had this experience? My guess is that he is proud of the installation and never really thought about it. Is he also a designer?

I can recall a similar situation at the design/build that I work for a couple of years ago. We did the design and construction of a million plus dollar landscape. The odd thing about it is that the homeowner liked the feel of vinyl pools under his feet rather than gunite. We don't do plastic bag pools, so another pool company stuck in the liner. The three foot wide bull nosed bluestone coping with the 2' radius cut corners was all ours along with the bluestone pool decking, the stone walls, and the landscaping. Photos of the job showed up in an ad for the other pool company (yes, we are landscape and pools) in the regional home magazine. The only thing that belonged to them in the picture was the plastic liner. That was put to a stop very quickly.

I think your situation is not quite so clear cut. I think you might ask him to credit you in the next printing and let him know you'll do the same when you do yours. I think there won't be any hard feelings. It is more exposure for you and you could tell people to look for his brochure with your work on it, if worse comes to worse (hand 'em out if things get real hostile LOL).

I'm not sure that he violated anything legally, but I think etiquette should dictate a reference. However, I see several adds by contractors in magazines that show ASLA award winning landscapes with no reference to the LAs. I know these LAs and they are not ones to duck the spot light. I really doubt that they would not have had their names in the adds if offered the reference. They also continue to use these contractors. My guess is that there is no legal conflict.

Is it right to use photos from work you did at previous employers in your portfolio? I think it is necessary to reference the employer, but you can not be denied a portfolio in order to gain employment in the design field.

What about jobs that were installed a couple of years ago and others have maintained them and added annuals and perennials that enhance the work? Should they not be able to use photos of the job?

I think everyone has some rights to their part. I also think that they should not be required to advertise for other people, especially in such a closely relared work area. A blatant fabrication of the truth that directly states that the design work was by them is another story. It is very annoying and lacks a bit in etiquette.

How many sentences started with "I think"?

Another point to consider before you confront him -

I work in printing/publishing as my 'day job' (gardening as my weekend job). There a many ways to set up the printing for a slick/glossy brochure and just about all of them are very complex. Extra fine type such as what is used for photo captions or credits requires some special care to insure readability when it prints. This special plate often gets overlooked, forgotten, or tossed and no one sees the error in the proofing process. It happens everyday. So there could be a chance that a mistake was made during printing OR that this installer guy didn't even know he was supposed to credit you.

I would think you would want to share jobs with someone that can afford slick full color brochures. Mention the slight to him in a peaceful tone and hope that anyone commenting on the photo gets sent to you for design work.

I do like Laag's answer:

"I think you might ask him to credit you in the next printing and let him know you'll do the same when you do yours. I think there won't be any hard feelings. It is more exposure for you and you could tell people to look for his brochure with your work on it, if worse comes to worse (hand 'em out if things get real hostile LOL)."
But I might even ask him for a box of the brochures to use, when appropriate, just staple your card to them!

I would deffinatly let him know you'd like credit for the design along with his credit for intallatation. If he does this for each of the photos in the brochure it would really increase his exposure with all the designers.

Let us know what he says!