Shepard Fairey comes out swinging

Whose Obama is it anyway?

Shepard Fairey is fighting back and suing the Associated Press, which had accused the Los Angeles street artist of violating its copyright when he used an AP photo (left) to create the "Hope" poster of candidate Barack Obama (right).

Fairey's lawsuit says he and his company, Obey Giant Art Inc., used the photograph “as a visual reference for a highly transformative purpose. Fairey altered the original with new meaning, new expression and new messages.”

Bloomberg News reports that according to Fairey's complaint, his work is protected by the Fair Use statute, which allows limited use of copyrighted material to make original works of art.

But an AP spokesman said in a statement: “The photograph used in the poster is an AP photo, and its use required permission from AP."

The lawsuit comes on the heels of Fairey's arrest Friday on tagging charges in Boston over a 2000 incident -- which Fairey and his lawyer are saying was suspiciously timed to his arrival at an event in his honor at the Institute for Contemporary Art.

“It’s very unlikely they would’ve done that if it was someone else,” attorney Jeff Wiesner said of the arrest Friday, as reported by metrobosontonnews.com.

As Culture Monster has previously reported, this controversy comes on the heels of attention of a different kind. Fairey's Obama poster was just added the walls of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

--Sherry Stern

Photo credits: Associated Press, left, and Shepard Fairey.

Comments

[artistkvip]

street art is a legitimate genre .....i like some of the best examples of it but i think art should be constructive not destructive..... i think the young steet artist is embarressing himself here. he himself says its an iconic image .. the image is the face and the expression caught by the photographer artist quite skillfully . images like this don't just fall out of trees. somebody put in the time to gain the skills and abilities to capture what hey captured in the photo. i ask the question if you had the word... change written and just those colors what would you actually have.... pretty decorations...my point is a lot of people have decorations mixed up with art. there is plaugerism and people who create and in this case it could have had a person simply asking permission or crediting insteading of pretending they had rescued some poor "orphan"image who didn't know it was powereful. well my question would be if the image wasn't the powerful thing why was it picked to be used by the obama team , i think quite correctly. it is a powerful image. what we have here is an artist who wants to be paid for his work trying to desroy the very system that would insure that if he created the work ..he would get paid.. people sometimes don't realize they are biting thier own butt maybe. or either we have a pretender artist who like coloring books and stickers and doesn't realize the difference betweenthat and actually creating art.my first guess would be theseemingly talented young man made a mistake

[Cristobal DeLicia]

Last April, Fairey mobilized his legal team to send Baxter Orr a cease and desist order threatening legal action against him. The Austin, Texas, artist made a parody of Fairey's Andre the Giant design, adorning it with a SARS mask and the title "Protect Yourself."
Fairey is a hypocrite. Check out his work with Saks Fifth Avenue, etc, etc, etc.

[doreen]

As a graphic designer, I am ashamed of the artist for not getting permission to use the photograph for reference. Photographers should be respected as any other artist. And in most cased, if you just ask the photographer out of respect, they may even give you permission for just a mere credit line. Even if you have to pay a small fee, it is worth it to acknowledge the photographer.

[kat]

Art throughout history is a series of thievings and adaptation of others work. It's just the way art works. The only difference now is that there's too much law involved and everyone is sue-happy. What do you think this means for montage artists or pop artists? Someone makes fun of mickey mouse or McDonalds and gets sued? Their are hundreds of well known artists who adapt pop media into art. I don't see anyone suing Any Warhol's estate. hmm. This leaks of desperation on the side of the AP. The Photographer doesn't mind, Its HIS and that's all there should be to it.

[Donald Frazell]

Then Fairey shouldnt be suiing others that use his modified images. Turnabouts fair play, but there is none in the marketplace of commercial art, which is all this is. Its just mediocre desing people, not art.