Russia’s Glamour magazine is fighting off accusations that it plagiarised work from a young Instagram artist for its latest cover shoot.
The June edition features Russian beauty blogger Elena Kryginа covered in fresh, tech-inspired transfers.
But it didn’t take long for the internet to notice that they’d already seen the look before — in the work of Taiwanese-American artist, John Yuyi.
When the New York-based artist contacted the magazine, Glamour’s editorial team said they’d been “inspired” by Yuyi’s work. They also told users on their Instagram page that the magazine was “in touch” with Yuyi to try and settle the issue, and had credited her on the initial Instagram post.
But the artist says she hasn’t received any messages from Glamour to resolve the issue, almost a week after asking for an apology.
“This Glamour Russia magazine cover thing. It really made me very, very disappointed. I feel sad. I feel down,” Yuyi wrote on Instagram. “What I received was just a very perfunctory reply trying to get away of responsibility. I’ve been waiting for them to reply to me. But it has been 6 days.”
Yuyi added that he felt ripped off by a big company. “Compare them with me. I worked step by step to have a little achievement today,” he wrote. “They are a big international company with a lot of resources. I felt my 5 years hard work was robbed. I really feel powerless and helpless.”