Paulina Porizkova recently shared some insight on why she’s taking a break from posting skilled photos to her Instagram.
The previous supermodel took to Instagram on Aug. 1 to share a close-up selfie taken very first thing within the morning with a lengthy caption.
“One reason I’ve been posting so much of self generated content these days is because I’m terrified. Of what, chances are you’ll wonder? Of getting sued. Again,” she began her caption.
In 2022, the previous ‘80s supermodel took to Instagram to share a photographer’s photos of the war in Ukraine together with her 1.1 million followers.
“Here’s the deal. Last 12 months, while posting in regards to the horrors in Ukraine, I used photos I discovered on IG for example the story. Six months later, I used to be slapped with a lawsuit by a lawfirm on the behalf of one photographer. I had used his photo without his approval or without paying for usage,” she said.
“Until that time, I didn’t even realize this was a thing- reposting photos from the web being illegal. My images are used on a regular basis, and unless someone is attempting to sell something with the photographs, I believed this was high-quality. It seems it’s not.”
She noted there are “law firms that do nothing but scour social media for dummies like myself who’ve enough followers to pay up.”
Porizkova shared that the parties “settled out of court” because her “best intentions notwithstanding, they were right.”
“I did use an unauthorized photo- even when it was carrying on the message I believed the photographer was attempting to make – that war is evil. And boy, did that transform an expensive mistake!” she admitted.
The 58-year-old warned her followers they “will want to unfollow” her since she plans to be sticking to pictures of herself going forward.
“For those of you who don’t mind- thanks for taking this journey called life with me. I’m so very grateful for you! #betweenjloandbettywhite #gettingsuedisexpensive,” she concluded. “Yes, this is what I appear like within the morning.”
Porizkova’s post sparked commentary from other skilled photographers.
“That’s ridiculous. I’m a photographer and… I’d never stoop to suing someone for using one [a photo] without my permission,” one user commented.
Nevertheless, one other agreed with the lawsuit, saying, “If we’re talking about photographs of Ukraine in wartime, then that will be a photojournalist who is risking their life to go take those pictures.
“Photographers don’t and shouldn’t work without cost. Years of expertise and knowledge go in to each image.”
Since Porizkova’s post initially of the month, she has shared a number of latest selfies but nothing professionally shot.