A photographer is legally going after Kanye West for using her work without permission to diss a Vogue editor on social media.
According to TMZ, Michaela Efford has filed a lawsuit against the rapper and fashion designer for unspecified damages.
The London-based shutterbug alleges that West’s unsanctioned use of her photo during an Instagram rant last fall, in which he ripped into stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, has caused her professional harm.
Ye went on a tear after Karefa-Johnson, a Vogue contributing editor, openly objected to the “White Lives Matter” T-shirts he sent down the runway during Paris Fashion Week.
On Instagram, the self-professed “greatest artist that God ever created” used the image shot by Efford in a since-deleted post to declare that Karefa-Johnson was “not a fashion person.”
“You speak on Ye, Ima speak on you. Ask Trevor Noah,” he wrote. (West previously used a racial slur in a post about Noah, after the comedian referenced the rapper’s divorce from Kim Kardashian on his late-night show.)
According to TMZ, Efford claims the unauthorized usage of her photo has harmed her ability to market and profit from the work.