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# Hank Willis Thomas Clarifies His Position on Source Accreditation
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/hank-willis-thomas-clarification/
- Published: 2011-12-30T16:09:09.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:02:25.000Z
- Description: Artist Hank Willis Thomas, in an e-mailed response to my December 17 article, "Lawyers Weigh In on Appropriation Art and Fair Use," made this clarification …
- Author: Cat Weaver
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Appropriation, Hank Willis Thomas, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/12/thomas_installation.jpg)

Hank Willis Thomas's "Unbranded" series (via brooklynmuseum.org)

Artist Hank Willis Thomas, in an e-mailed response to my December 17 article, “[Lawyers Weigh In on Appropriation Art and Fair Use](https://hyperallergic.com/carious-v-prince-nyc-bar-association/),” made this clarification:

> “I wanted to make clear that when I appropriated images for the *Unbranded* series I did credit the image to the artists whose names I knew or could find. For the others I wrote ‘original photographer unknown’ under the title of the work. It was important for me that no one confuse the images as something I took. It would ruin the piece. I don’t however think a credit should be on the image that is being appropriated, because that would also ruin the piece. I hope that makes sense.”