Made public Friday through comments made on his website, Shepard Fairey admitted to destroying evidence and creating false documents to conceal the original photo used to create the “Hope” and “Progress” posters popularized during the Obama campaign. Fairey apologized for his “lapse in judgment” and took full responsibility for his actions, which he said were his alone. He has since been dropped by his legal council, which will officially step down once new council can be obtained. It seems Shep will still pursue his case against the AP, in which he contends he has the right to fair use of the image as it was fundamentally transformed from it’s original state. While he “regrets not coming forward sooner,” Fairey’s case against the AP will be severely impacted by this new development, especially considering the loss of his legal team.
The reference photo for Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster has been identified and the Associated Press claims it wants to get paid. The photo was shot in 2006 by photographer Mannie Garcia. Shepard preemptively filed a lawsuit attempting to protect himself from copyright infringement claims. While we’re no legal experts and we’re sympathetic to the photographer’s work, we think Shepard’s got this one. A catalyst for the legal feud may have been the acquisition of a related work by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. It was purchased for an undisclosed amount of money.
This is not Shepard Fairey’s first encounter with the legal system. He has been arrested many times (most recently last Friday in Boston). By our estimation, he’s been arrested about fifteen times.
Photographer Mannie Garcia was very gracious. “I don’t condone people taking things, just because they can, off the Internet,†Mr. Garcia said. “But in this case I think it’s a very unique situation. If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it’s had.â€
