A rock memorabilia collector in Chicago has won a major fraud case after claiming Ross Halfin, the well known music photographer, sold him Lynyrd Skynyrd prints that were not his to sell.
Collector Jeremy Wagner met U.K. photographer Ross Halfin at a dinner in Paris back in 2017, PetaPixel have reported. When Wagner mentioned that he was into 1970s era Lynyrd Skynyrd, Halfin said he had shot the band at the time and still owned the original negatives and contact sheets.
In early 2018 Wagner followed up, eventually agreeing to buy a print titled Nuthin Fancy 75. Ross Halfin then emailed him contact sheets and pointed out more photos he said were his work, including shots said to be from Knebworth House in 1976 and another image titled Hammersmith Oct 27 1975.
Wagner paid more than $7,300 for four prints, then spent over $1,000 having them custom framed, believing he owned genuine Ross Halfin pieces of Lynyrd Skynyrd history.
The trouble only surfaced years later. In 2023 a Lynyrd Skynyrd expert contacted Wagner about using the images in a book. Once the expert saw the photos, he immediately said that the Knebworth and Hammersmith shots were actually taken by another photographer, Barry Plummer, and that the Nuthin Fancy print was also not Ross Halfin’s work. He produced contact sheets showing the same images correctly credited to Plummer and said he believed Halfin had cropped out those credits before sending his versions.
According to court filings, Plummer later confirmed by email that the disputed photos were his. The expert also challenged Halfin’s story that he had photographed the band playing their classic Free Bird at Knebworth, noting that the guitars in the images do not match what the band used for that song.
Wagner decided to take the matter to court. He served Halfin with a lawsuit in December 2024 while attending Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett’s wedding in California. Halfin then failed to appear at several hearings and, through his attorney, reportedly admitted that the factual allegations in the complaint were true. That left him facing liability for consumer fraud under Illinois law.
With Halfin unwilling or unable to continue contesting the case, the court entered a default judgment. Wagner was awarded $61,241 in compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorneys’ fees and costs, a far higher figure than the original purchase price of the prints.
Halfin is a high profile music photographer who trades as RHP Ltd and sells his work directly to fans and collectors through his own site and online galleries. Wagner’s lawyer has suggested that other buyers could now step forward if they believe they were sold prints where the true copyright holder was someone else, raising uncomfortable questions for the wider rock and Heavy Metal memorabilia market.
For Lynyrd Skynyrd fans, the case is a reminder that the story behind a print or poster can be every bit as important as the image itself. Provenance matters, even when a famous signature is on the border.
