The use of a seemingly unrecognizable photograph of Obama that was manipulated into the HOPE poster we know today proves a few things. First, that it Shepard Fairey knew that his edited poster would be mass distributed he should have at least contacted the original artist, or the Associated Press from which the photo was originally posted. His debate is that he did a simple google search and went from there. However, it it was so simple to find the image through google, wouldn't it have been just as easy to find the source? Furthermore, Fairey should have protected himself with Creative Commons and perhaps none of the lawsuits would have happened.
I think it's funny that the Associated Press, that claims ownership of the photo, wants so much credit for it but the actual photographer, Mannie Garcia, is perfectly fine with Shepard Fairey's use and distribution of the photo. "The good news, of course, is that, in a follow up, Garcia seems perfectly happy that his photo was used, and not at all upset: 'I know artists like to look at things; they see things and they make stuff. It's a really cool piece of work.' In fact, he admits he did not even realize that his own photo was the inspiration, though, he says 'it always seemed so familiar.'" (techdirt)
Here’s the thing about “street artists”, even though, at this point, I think Shepard Fairey has outgrown that moniker. Street artists typically break some number of laws to create their art. Fairey’s Obey campaign was so successful because he put those damn stickers EVERYWHERE. Putting stickers on privately-owned property = vandalism. Vandalism = breaking the law. Copyright infringement = breaking the law. Banksy, one of the worlds best known street artists, paints things on buildings when nobody is looking. He's pretty much wicked famous, but that doesn't mean that what he does is entirely legal. He spent some time in New York, recently, and kept the law pissed off the whole time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/us/new-york-banksy-art/
I think it’s only natural that a “street artist” like Fairey broke some sort of law with HOPE. Just another day in the office for an artist who grew up as a rule-breaking dissident, if you ask me.
I'm sure there are hundreds of copycats or contemporaries of Fairey, similarly breaking copyright with their own brand of "street art". Fairey just happens to be one of the few that has gained notoriety for his work. It seems like everyone agrees that he should have known better. I guess no one told him that once he started making a ton of dough, he could have bank-rolled someone to take care of all that boring, legal stuff for him.