What Do You Do When a Celebrity Uses Your Photos Without Credit… Twice?

What do you do when a celebrity with almost 5 million followers on Instagram shares your photography with their audience without credit… twice? That’s the question fashion photographer Don Mupasi is wrestling with this week.

23-year-old UK-based Mupasi is a talented portrait, fashion, and conceptual photographer. Under any other circumstances, having iconic model and TV personality Tyra Banks share his photos with her 4.8 million Instagram followers would be a dream come true. Unfortunately, she failed to ask permission or give any credit when she did.

Mupasi took to Reddit to ask: what should I do? Twice in the last 3 days, Banks has shared one of his photos without credit or permission:

Mupasi says he wouldn’t have minded her posting the photos without permission, just so long as he had gotten a tag or some sort of credit. But he didn’t. What’s more, he claims other photographers have since gotten in touch with him to commiserate, saying Banks has done this to them, too. “I guess its nothing new,” he writes.

Legally, there’s probably not much Mupasi can do other than file a DMCA takedown. He’s messaged Banks on Instagram twice, once for each time she shared his photos without credit, but chances are good she’ll never see those messages.

If there is a silver lining, it’s that the photography community has rallied around him, posting proper credit in the comments over and over until it’s basically all you can see on one of the stolen photos.

So… what would you do in this situation? Contact Tyra’s publicist? File a DMCA takedown? Get a lawyer and attempt to collect fees? What would you do if a celebrity with almost 5 million followers on Instagram stole your photos?

Image credits: Screenshot and original photo by Don Mupasi and used with permission.