Fashion photos filched?

Another reality show has run afoul of a St. Louis area photographer.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, Marcie Cobbaert claims that “Project Runway” contestant and designer Laura Kathleen Planck and Lifetime have used at least four of the fashion photographer’s photographs on the show’s website without licensing them. Lifetime airs the show.

One of the photos used in Laura Kathleen Planck’s “Project Runway” portfolio. Photographer Marcie Cobbaert’s studio is in Wentzville. Photo courtesy of Marcie Cobbaert

The photos have appeared in the “Past Work Photos” section of Planck’s profile on the network’s website, the lawsuit claims.

Planck and Cobbaert had worked together previously, and Planck thought highly enough of Cobbaert’s photographs to use them in her bid to get on “Project Runway,” said Matthew Diehr, an attorney with Clayton firm Jensen Bartlett & Schelp representing Cobbaert.

“The next thing my client knew, the photos were up on a national website with a Lifetime stamp on them,” Diehr said.

Cobbaert, who holds the copyrights on the photos, “expressly objected” to their use to Planck and a Lifetime official in correspondence in May and June, says the lawsuit. The photographer asks for up to $30,000 for each copyright infringement or up to $150,000 for each “willful” infringement.

Planck didn’t immediately return a phone call by press time. An email to Lifetime’s parent company, A&E Television Networks, didn’t receive a response by press time.

Planck and her label, Laura Kathleen, are based in St. Louis. Cobbaert quit a corporate career in 2007 to focus on her fashion photography, according to her website. Her studio is in Wentzville.

Cobbaert’s lawsuit follows that of prominent St. Louis photographer Michael Eastman, who sued in the same court last week over Bravo’s “Million Dollar Decorators” blowing up one of his most famous photographs for a mural featured on the show.

Cobbaert’s lawsuit is Marcie Cobbaert v. A&E Television Networks; Lifetime Entertainment Services; and Laura Kathleen Planck, 4:11cv-01329.