- Institute for Women’s poster shows five plus-size women on a beach.
- Nyome Nicholas-Williams claims her image was used without permission.
- The artist responsible for the image has apologised to Nyome.
A British plus-size model claims her image was used without her permission in a Spanish campaign promoting body positivity.
The advertisement for the equality ministry was commended for depicting varied ladies of various shapes and sizes resting on a beach.
However, Nyome Nicholas-Williams of London claims that a photo from her Instagram page was copied without her permission.
The artist responsible for the image has apologised to Nyome, but she has yet to hear from the Spanish government.
Nyome, 30, tells BBC Newsbeat that a picture from her social media account was modified for the Institute for Women’s poster, which was launched earlier this week.
It depicts five women on a beach, including one who has had a mastectomy, with the message “summer is ours too.”
Nyome is wearing a gold bikini and is sitting on the sand, her head turned towards the viewer.
She claims that one of her 78,000 followers notified her after the campaign was widely reported in the global media.
“I was really taken aback because I had never seen it before,” Nyome says.
“It isn’t a stock photo, it’s a picture that I’ve taken on my Instagram.
“It’s rude and it’s disrespectful.”
“They said they used my image because they were running low on time,” she says, adding that they apologised and, “said they’d compensate me”.
“I feel it’s very reactive rather than proactive,” she says. “I’m annoyed because if they’d asked me in the beginning, I could have made a decision, I probably would have said yes”.
Nyome finds it “very ironic and wild” that the Women’s Institute failed to get consent from her to use her image.
“They should know better,” she says.
Nyome says she doesn’t know who the other women on the billboard are or whether they were asked to consent, but she hopes the woman with the mastectomy was asked and “would be happy to have that image out there like that.”
She claims that her images have been duplicated before and that in 2020 she had a legal struggle with another illustrator who put her image for phone covers, purses, and mugs.
Nyome thinks “people feel like they can get away with it” as she’s a model and posts images publicly.
“I understand I’m a model, and yes I do post [pictures] in my underwear, but that’s still my body,” she says.
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