{"id":777561,"date":"2026-05-06T15:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/777561\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:40:20","slug":"two-photographers-are-in-court-over-images-of-miniature-figurines-on-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/777561\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Photographers are in Court Over Images of Miniature Figurines on Fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MiniatureChristopher Boffoli\u2019s photo \u2018Papaya Golf\u2019 from his Big Appetites series (left) and Laurie McCormick\u2019s photo \u2018Papaya Trap\u2019 (right). Boffoli has sued McCormick for copyright infringement over the photo | Images via court documents<\/a> <\/p>\n

Two photographers are facing off in court over their images showing two miniature golfers playing on the surface of a papaya fruit.<\/p>\n

The copyright infringement lawsuit involves a collection of images taken by acclaimed fine art photographer Christopher Boffoli<\/a>. Boffoli\u2019s Big Appetites<\/a> is a series of photographs that feature tiny, lifelike figurines staged on actual food. Big Appetites has reportedly been published in more than 100 countries and featured in major publications such as The New York Times and NPR.<\/p>\n

\"MiniatureChristopher Boffoli\u2019s photograph \u2018Banana Racers\u2019 | Image via court documents \"FiveLaurie McCormick\u2019s photo \u2018The Big Banana\u2019 | Image via court documents <\/p>\n

According to a report by Vital Law,<\/a> Boffoli sued photographer Laurie McCormick for selling two photographs on Amazon that allegedly copied from his own. One of McCormick\u2019s photographs \u201cThe Big Banana\u201d depicted nine miniature bicyclists riding down the side of a bunch of bananas. The other \u201cPapaya Golf\u201d featured two golfers putting on the surface of an open-faced papaya fruit.<\/p>\n

McCormick moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that Boffoli did not adequately plead access or substantial similarity. In an opinion last month,<\/a> in response to McCormick\u2019s request to have the case thrown out, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California found that Boffoli had presented sufficient evidence at this stage to show that McCormick could have seen his work. Boffoli says that his images \u201creached worldwide recognition within the narrow field of miniature food photography \u2014 a group which [McCormick] has been a member of since 2011.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, despite this, the court dismissed Boffoli\u2019s infringement claim over McCormick\u2019s banana-themed photograph.<\/p>\n

Papayas, Not Bananas <\/p>\n

Vital Law reports that the District Court for the Southern District of California found that the photographer\u2019s pair of images depicting miniature bicycle riders on the surface of bananas shared only \u201cthe general idea or concept\u201d but not enough details to allow an infringement claim to stand. In Boffoli\u2019s \u201cBanana Racers,\u201d the bananas are angled down, the scene is wide with a light purple background and strawberries, and multiple riders are shown. Meanwhile, in McCormick\u2019s \u201cThe Big Banana,\u201d the bananas point upward, the background is dark, and the view is close-up on a single rider. The court found that the banana-themed images weren\u2019t substantially similar as a matter of law because nearly everything differed beyond the shared concept of \u201cbikes on bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoChristopher Boffoli\u2019s \u2018Papaya Golf\u2019 | Image via court documents \"ALaurie McCormick\u2019s \u2018Papaya Trap\u2019 | Image via court documents <\/p>\n

But while the banana-themed claim failed, the court says Boffoli\u2019s lawsuit against McCormick over the papaya-themed photo can move forward. The court found that similarities in McCormick\u2019s papaya photo went beyond the idea and into the expression, and that the minor differences between his and Boffoli\u2019s images were \u201cmore indicative of deliberate copying rather than producing an image unmistakably different in material details.\u201d The court says that McCormick\u2019s \u201cPapaya Trap\u201d could be considered substantially similar to Boffoli\u2019s \u201cPapaya Golf\u201d as both images showed \u201ca golfer on a papaya with the papaya seeds depicting a golf obstacle,\u201d with a single golfer near the seeds and a dark background. The differences between Boffoli\u2019s and McCormick\u2019s photos were minor: mainly \u201cthe number of golfers and the papaya\u2019s slight change in position within the frame.\u201d <\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> All photos via court documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Boffoli\u2019s photo \u2018Papaya Golf\u2019 from his Big Appetites series (left) and Laurie McCormick\u2019s photo \u2018Papaya Trap\u2019 (right).…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":777562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,318482,82552,1033,171,379,75750,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-777561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-christopherboffoli","11":"tag-copyrightinfringement","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-lawsuit","15":"tag-miniature","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116528390433701414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}