Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, and More Photoshopped Into Domestic Violence Victims

Robert Kessler
·Editor

Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, and Angelina Jolie (Photos: Courtesy Alexsandro Palombo)

Public awareness campaigns are often designed to shock and these, intended to spread awareness about domestic violence, designed by the artist Alexsandro Palombo will certainly do just that.

For the series, Palombo used Photoshop to depict some of the world’s most recognizable female faces as survivors of domestic abuse.

Kendall Jenner (Photo: Courtesy Alexsandro Palombo)

However, a representative for Kim Kardashian says she did not give her permission for her face to be used in the project, which could create legal issues for the artist. (Yahoo has also reached out to representatives for Kendall Jenner, Madonna, and Miley Cyrus for comment.)

According to California publicity law, an artist may only claim a First Amendment right to use a celebrity’s image when the work “contains significant transformative elements or that the value of the work does not derive primarily from the celebrity’s fame.”

That is obviously a fairly subjective statute that is left up to judges to determine. For the record, none of the women included in the project have yet to file suit.

Madonna (Photo: Courtesy Alexsandro Palombo)

But it could be a fairly touchy subject to see your own face manipulated to look like you’ve been the victim of significant violence, especially for stars like Kardashian or Madonna, who’ve been in abusive relationships in the past.

According to legal documents, Kim Kardashian’s first husband Damon Thomas beat her repeatedly and required her to let him know where she was every minute of the day.

Palombo uses familiar figures to raise awareness about social and cultural issues; some of his more famous projects depict Disney princesses as breast cancer survivors and with various disabilities. Palombo himself is the survivor of a rare cancer, the treatment of which has left him paralyzed.

In an email with Yahoo, Palombo’s team was adamant that the series is “a contemporary art series and not a campaign.”

(Left: Courtesy Alexsandro Palombo; Right: Splash News)

At least one of the renderings, that of Kim Kardashian, was taken from an existing image. Above, Palombo’s image is on the left; on the right is a picture of Kim Kardashian at the 2014 Valentino show during Paris Fashion Week. Splash News, which owns the copyright on the original image, did not respond when Yahoo asked if Palombo had licensed the image legally.