Amyl and the Sniffers frontwoman Amy Taylor has been named in a civil harassment restraining order petition.
As first reported by Blunt, the petition was filed by photographer Jamie Nelson in Los Angeles Superior Court last December 9th. A temporary restraining order wasn’t granted at the time of filing, with a hearing scheduled for February 13th.
In a statement provided to Tone Deaf, Nelson said, “I am a Los Angeles–based female photographer and the copyright holder of the photographic series Champagne Problems, created in 2025 and published in an international issue of Vogue. I served as the photographer, producer, and sole financial investor for the series.
“On December 4th, 2025, after a third party related to Amy Taylor publicly posted one of my copyrighted images without my permission, I issued cease-and-desist notices to the third party, Amy Taylor, and Amyl and the Sniffers.
“On December 9th, 2025, I sought court protection by filing a Civil Harassment Restraining Order in Los Angeles Superior Court against Amy Taylor. That matter remains pending, with a hearing scheduled for February 13th, 2026. Given the active proceedings, I am limiting public comment to factual context.
“On December 22th, 2025, a civil action was filed against me. The matter concerns my rights as the copyright holder with respect to the sale of fine-art prints of my own work. I contest the allegations and will address them through the appropriate legal process. As of today, I have not been served, and no hearings have been scheduled in that matter.”
Taylor filed a federal civil lawsuit against Nelson in California on December 22nd, alleging that images taken during a Vogue Portugal photoshoot were commercially exploited without her permission.
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Per the court documents, the issue began in July 2024 when Amyl and the Sniffers’ manager, Simone Ubaldi, reached out to Nelson to photograph them for their album Cartoon Darkness. The shoot later fell through after they “expressly communicated” to Nelson that they didn’t want her to use the band’s name, image, and likeness to promote her own business.
“As explained to Ms. Nelson, the Band was zealously protective of their image and did not want these used for non-Band-sanctioned, private commercial purposes such as Ms. Nelson had proposed. As a result, the photo shoot was never conducted,” the complaint read.
Nelson allegedly contacted Taylor months later, requesting to photograph her “with the express intention that the resulting images … would be published exclusively in the July 2025 issue of Vogue Portugal,” the documents claimed.
Taylor agreed, but allegedly “at no point” authorised or licensed Nelson the right to make any other commercial use beyond the magazine issue. By September, Nelson sent Taylor and Ubaldi a selection of images she indicated she wanted to sell as “fine art prints” on her website.
After receiving Nelson’s proposal, Ubaldi claimed to have told Nelson that Taylor objected to such use of her image and that “the only permitted use of the same had been for inclusion in Vogue Portugal.” Taylor alleged that Nelson was “well aware of [her] antipathy to such an expanded exploitation of her image” and that no agreement existed authorising Nelson to sell copies of the photoshoot.
Per the documents, Nelson continued to seek a license from Taylor on multiple occasions, to which Taylor “rejected each such request, and no such agreement was ever reached.” Filings go on to say that later in September, Taylor discovered that Nelson was selling “fine art prints” containing the pictures on her website, and using the photos to promote her commercial enterprises.
At the time of writing, neither legal dispute has been settled in court.
In other news related to Taylor, Amyl and the Sniffers have made the shortlist for the 2026 Peer-Voted APRA Song of the Year. The winner will be announced at the APRA Music Awards in April.
