Hope poster by shepard fairey cultural studies essay

Paste magazine’s easy-to-use, web-based Obamicon generator —one of many online tools that make it easy to modify an picture to look like Fairey’s poster—has reportedly created more than 500,000 of these images. What do you think? Is the Obama “Hope” poster an example of fair use or copyright infringement?

Prior to the creation of the poster Fairey was most notable for his distinctive aesthetic, which he describes as a “ bold iconic style that is based on stylising and idealising images .” Much of his earlier work is overtly political with many of his images showing criticism — typically through his caricature style.

Nearly everyone knows or at least has seen the ”HOPE” poster by Shepard Fairey, which has become a symbol in the 2008 Election Campaign and beyond. The image is showing Barack Obama in three-quarters profile, focusing sharply into the distance, while wearing a suit.

The ”HOPE” Poster by Shepard Fairey can be described as Appropriation Art. Appropriation artists adopt images and add their own style to it, hence create a new art work (cf. Gersh-Nesic np.). Fairey also used an consisting image of Barack Obama, which was actually taken in Washington D.C. in 2006 (cf.