Why Eric McNatt Sued Richard Prince Over Fair Use

A decade ago, Eric McNatt made a portrait of Kim Gordon for Paper magazine. He was paid $100. Working for Paper has never really been about the money; you get to do something cool with someone interesting, and it often pays off in other ways. This portrait — black-and-white, austere but playful, with the rock star’s arms folded — instead led to him feeling like he was ripped off by a famous artist, Richard Prince, and betrayed by Gordon herself. What resulted was eight arduous, intrusive years of litigation ending in a $450,000 settlement from Prince to McNatt.

I knew McNatt when we were much younger but I hadn’t seen him in decades. Over those years, a…