Photographer Accuses Mickalene Thomas of Copyright Infringement in New Lawsuit
Photographer Barbara Karant has sued artist Mickalene Thomas in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging copyright infringement for using Karant’s photographs without permission or attribution. The lawsuit centers on Karant’s “820 Ebony/Jet” series—about 250 images made between 2013 and 2015—documenting the interiors of the former Johnson Publishing Company headquarters in Chicago, the firm behind Ebony and Jet magazines until 2016. Karant’s complaint says Thomas engaged in “wholesale copying” of copyrighted works, including in a 2021 exhibition at New York’s Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery that showed pixelated versions of Karant’s images, where the release referenced Jet but did not name Karant. Karant is also preparing a book of the photographs due in September with writings by scholars including Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis; Thomas declined to comment, and Karant’s lawyer also declined further comment.
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This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Museums Under Pressure