In a new essay for New York Magazine, Emily Ratajkowski opens up about her experiences having her images used without her consent — and exactly how damaging that can be.
In the essay, Ratajkowski describes several instances when others claimed ownership of her image. She writes about, for instance, being sued for posting a picture of herself to her Instagram account; the image in question had been taken by a paparazzo.
The model is not the only celebrity who's had this experience. Gigi Hadid and Khloe Kardashian have both been sued for posting images of themselves to Instagram.
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Later in her essay, Ratajkowski describes receiving notice that photographer Jonathan Leder was publishing a book titled Emily Ratajkowski. The book included hundreds of images of the model, including poctures Leder had taken of her in 2012. And the book was being published without Ratajkowski's knowledge or consent. It was reprinted three times.
At one point, the model tweeted about her objections to the book: "I've been resisting speaking publicly on the recently released photos by Jonathan Leder to avoid giving him publicity. But I've had enough. This book and the images within them are a violation. These photos being used w/o my permission is an example of exactly the opposite of what I stand for." In the essay, she describes the "unrelenting" victim-blaming replies.
Making matters worse, some of the images in the book had been taken during a photoshoot that seemed uncomfortable, to say the least: Leder asked Ratajkowski to pose in lingerie, then nude, though she hadn't realised it would be a lingerie shoot. She describes the negative experience in detail in her essay. She also says that when Leder was contacted by a New York Magazine fact-checker, he responded by victim-blaming and calling Ratajkowski's allegations "too tawdry and childish to respond to."
Ratajkowski's essay is just one part of a larger collection of personal essays from the model, according to her recent Instagram post.
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