The Poster Boy

The Barack Obama Hope Poster has inspired countless discussions, imitations and controversies since its inception in 2008. Created by graphic artist Shepard Fairey, the minimalistic blue, red and beige stencil outlines of then US presidential candidate Barack Obama became the proverbial poster boy image for change during the 2008 election season.

The most popular version is the one you see above, but other variants by Fairey exchanged the word HOPE with PROGRESS or CHANGE. In fact, the original poster had PROGRESS written on it with the artist's Obey emblem subtly added. Whichever words used, the poster conveyed the message of Obama's campaign simply and effectively.

It's iconic yet seemingly effortless design has made it easy for other artists and even ordinary individuals with some basic computer skills to make their own posters. You can probably find close to a thousand different designs today, from former US presidents and former presidential hopefuls to hopeless leaders and mad men (Those last two links and descriptions are interchangeable by the way).

Inspiration also comes from reality show pop stars in the UK to Hollywood stars in a galaxy far, far away. Another famous variant comes from the distant planet Cybertron while another iz in ur ceiling.

It only took a two-second Google search to find these images, and it's not unlikely that you'll find new designs by the time you do your own search. On the off chance that you don't have two seconds to spare, you can always go here for all you poster-variant needs.

The quality of a good artwork is its ability to encourage different interpretations, so it's not surprising that the Barack Obama Hope Poster has also inspired dissident designs. This one, from an unknown source, is quite well done in my opinion.

This is all interesting and informative, but what is a piece of vectorized poster art doing on a photography blog? Well, such an iconic image isn't without controversy, and the same is true for this one, only that it involves an unassuming photograph, the Associated Press and the artist Shepard Fairey.

To make a long story short, the source of the Obama poster was discovered to be an AP photo taken 2006. In 2009, the AP decided that Fairey violated copyright laws because he used the 2006 photo as the basis for his poster without the AP's permission. You can see in the comparison below how the poster and photograph match up.

The artist sued the AP, admitting later on that he did use the AP photo but arguing that it was under the fair use doctrine. The AP counter sued, arguing that the artist knew that the photo was copyright, but deliberately ignored that fact.

On top of it all, the original photographer of the Obama picture, Mannie Garcia, fell into the fray and argued that he retained the copyright of the photo and not the AP.

The back and forth accusations finally stopped three months ago, when the case was settled out of court without any confirmation on whether or not any copyright laws were violated. It should be noted however, that both parties agreed to share the profits from future sales of the poster; it's always a win-win solution when money is involved.

I had followed the progress of the poster's copyright issues with light interest over the course of last year, but I can't help but feel that the issue hits closer to home now that I started this blog. As a site that's primarily devoted to photography, I find myself "borrowing" most of the images used in each post from other websites. The goal of this blog is to freely share the beauty and power of different images that I feel should be seen by others, but then again, their use may have inadvertently breached some law or regulation.

I recently posted a disclaimer on this site to clear up any issues regarding fair use and copyright images on the blog, and if anyone who owns the rights to any of the images used here believes that the images should be taken down, then please feel free to comment below or contact me through this form.

On a lighter note, I would be interested to know how you feel about this copyright issue, as well as your favorite Obama Hope variants. Personally, I like this Charles Darwin poster by Mike Rosulek the best.

Whatever your opinion of the Barack Obama Hope Poster copyright issue, you have to admit that it's brought out some good by making the free use doctrine more recognized, as well as by inspiring other people to create their own Obama Hope-esque digital artworks for the whole world to see.