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AP seeking compensation for use of Obama picture
2009-02-05
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey's poster of Barack Obama tinted in red, white and blue and staring into the sky above the word "HOPE" became the iconic image of the 2008 presidential campaign. Now the US news agency the Associated Press wants to be paid for it. "The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission," AP spokesman Paul Colford said in a statement. "AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis," he said. "We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution." Mannie Garcia, who took the picture of then-senator Obama at an event here in April 2006, said he only discovered it was his photo that was used by Fairey on January 21, the day after Obama was sworn in as president. Garcia, a Washington-based photographer who has worked for Agence France-Presse in addition to the AP, said he found out in an email and a telephone call from a New York gallery owner. "Being on the campaign I would see it (the poster) all the time," Garcia told AFP. "I kept seeing it and it was filed in the back of my head, like, you know, there's something there. "But to be honest did I say that it's mine, no," he said. Garcia said having his photo used for the most iconic image of the election was "very cool." "I'm proud of that photograph that I made," he said. "Very proud of it in light of what's happened. "It was an element in a campaign that was historical," Garcia said. "A campaign that helped elect the first black senator to become president of the United States." The Fair Use Project of Stanford University is representing Fairey in the discussions with the AP. Fair use allows for the use of copyrighted material in certain cases and for specific purposes and is most generally invoked in the United States by news organizations.
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