In this critical look at photographer Ryan McGinley’s recent photo shoot with Brad Pitt, photographer Ian Wong examines why he believes McGinley’s style is just not suited to celebrity portraiture work—an insightful look at what works (and what doesn't) in pop culture photography.
At what point does inspiration turn into plagiarism? That's the question that popped up last year when Rhianna was sued by David LaChapelle over scenes found in one of her music videos, and it's the same issue with a lawsuit recently filed by photographer Janine Gordon against photographer Ryan McGinley. Gordon claims that 150 of McGinley's images -- including some used for a Levi's ad campaign -- are "substantially based" on her photos. In the three pairs of disputed images shown above, the ones on the left are by Gordon and the ones on the right by McGinley.