Photographer sues Kendall and Kylie Jenner for using his Tupac pics on their tees
The public furor over Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s ill conceived mashup tees has mostly died down, but it’s been replaced by more legitimate woes for the designing sisters. Voletta Wallace already sent a cease and desist letter to the Kardashian adjacent via her lawyer for “unlawfully exploiting the name, image, and likeness” of her son Christopher Wallace, a.k.a the Notorious B.I.G., whose eyes are downcast in the photo used for the Kendall tee, which had all the design concept of bathroom graffiti. The Jenners have pulled the tees and related images from their online stores, but they’re still facing a lawsuit, Billboard reports.
Photographer Michael Miller has filed suit against the aspiring impresarios for copyright infringement over the use of his photos of the late Tupac Shakur on their shirts. The complaint indicates that Miller was never contacted by the Kendall + Kylie team, which has “misappropriated and wrongfully exploited at least two original photographs of late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur, slapping the iconic photographs on garments and overlaying them with dubious imagery and text.” The court documents also note that Kendall Jenner’s other media relations snafu exacerbates matters, presumably because no self-respecting photographer—or really, any kind of professional—wants their work associated with that PR (as in “Pepsi rebel”) disaster.
Despite the burns rendered in legalese, it’s not known what kind of damages Miller is seeking. Tupac Shakur’s estate hasn’t responded to Billboard’s request for a comment, but Wallace’s estate has indicated that the “matter has yet to be resolved.”