Three British women have already spoken out accusing a Spanish government campaign of using their images without consent.
The campaign, by the Instituto da Mulher, part of the Spanish Ministry of Equality, features an illustration of five women with different bodies. The proposal was to encourage women to enjoy the beach without their appearance being a concern. However, accusations began to surface that the illustration was based on images of real women.
The Spanish government told the BBC’s Radio 1 Newsbeat that “at no time was it aware that the women in the images were real people”.
“The contracted work was illustration without the use of models.”
“Therefore, the Instituto da Mulher, as an aggrieved party, has contacted the models to clarify the situation and is waiting for the illustrator and the models to reach an agreement.”
Sian Green-Lord, whose prosthetic leg was removed from the image, says he “doesn’t believe at all” in the Spanish government’s response.
“They didn’t even apologize – it’s comical. We need to take this as far as we can. I just want justice for all of us, because it was something that caused a lot of inconvenience.”
“I’m speechless. It’s really brutal, I can’t believe they’re making the situation worse.”
Nyome Nicholas-Williams, who also claims that his photo was used, said that “it looks like they’re just shifting the blame to the illustrator, but the government hired her.”
“The campaign could have been great if they invited us to Spain, did the photoshoot and paid us, but they decided to put my head on someone else and erase Sian’s leg,” adds Nyome, who lives in London.
Sian and Nyome weren’t the only women to speak out about the use of images in the campaign.
Juliet FitzPatrick, who underwent a mastectomy during treatment for cancer, from which she has since recovered, thinks that a design in the campaign was inspired by her – but in the illustration, a woman appears with only one breast, while Juliet had the procedure on both sides. tits.
Copyright laws in the UK and Spain say that a photo, or part of it, cannot be used or copied without the owner’s permission.
The Spanish government apologized to Juliet, but not to Nyome or Sian.
But the creator of the campaign, who introduces herself as Arte Mapache, issued an apology.
“Given the justified controversy over image rights in the illustration, I have decided that the best way to repair the damage that may have resulted from my actions is to split the money I received for the work and give equal shares to the people in the poster.”
This text was originally published here.
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