Shepard Fairey

Although Fairey used someone else's image to create a graphic piece of public art, he used what we like to call "creative freedom". Since the limits of this "freedom" are undefined, what he did was completely reasonable. First of all, in the Colbert interview, he mentioned that he did not care about gaining profit from this image. This is very respectable and he should not be looked down upon for transforming this image. He used a standard press image to create a graphic poster/statement without intent of profit. I see nothing wrong with this. Shepard Fairey owns his image and the photographer of the image Shepard Fairey based his piece on owns that image. They are two different pieces. Secondly, in order to create the iconic poster, the original photographer would have needed Shepard Fariey's creative intelligence. The "poster" image Fairey created mimics his personal style. It is not only iconic of Obama's campaign but of Fairey's artwork. There will always be a debate about this. It is near impossible for people to come to one consensus when profit of a image is involved.

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