Derivative, Appropriative, Transformative, and Infringed...

I wasn't planning on posting more on the Obama poster source photo, but then I read the news stories about the arrest of artist Shepard Fairey in Boston Friday night. And saw the Boston Herald's illustration using Paste Magazine's web application obamicon.me to Fairey-ize the artist's mug shot with his own iconic silkscreen treatment. No doubt you'll be seeing the image everywhere now – it's not that great a leap for any other derivative artist out there to come up with the idea…

So this got me thinking: what is art? who had the idea first? what's original? what is a derivative, appropriatiive, transformative, and infringed anything?  And what does creative commons, copyright, public domain, and intellectual property all mean?

I spent a considerable amount of time and effort over the past couple of weeks photographically copying the work of sculptors Randolph Rogers, Emil Seletz, John Otto Schweitzer, Daniel Chester French, Leonard Volk, and Franklin Simmons; U.S. Mint engraver Victor D. Brenner; painter John Rogers; the architects/ designers of Abraham Lincoln High School in Northeast Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field (home to the Philadelphia Eagles) and American Legion Lincoln Post 89 in South Philadelphia; as well as sign makers at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, City of Philadelphia Streets Department, the National Park Service and Lincoln University.

The result of my very own foray into derivative, appropriated, transformated and infringed imagery fills most of an entire page inside the op/ed section of today's Inquirer  - fifteen photos celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth this Thursday.

The photos make up the weekly Currents feature "Pop Quiz." You can click here or on the photo above for a slide show. This statue is "Lincoln the Emancipator" by Randolph Rogers which is located on Kelly Drive (Installation: 1871. Materials: Bronze, granite base). You'll have to buy the newspaper to see the photos without captions – to see how you do on the quiz.

It's not as elaborate as the montage I did for Benjamin Franklin's 300th three years ago because I work in Philadelphia, not Illinois, and Abe's just not as ubiquitous here. For that one, I photographically copied over 500 images (don't worry, I won't list all those sculptors, artists, bridge builders, and others).

So, did I violate anything by taking all these photos?

These are things I never even thought about before. Especially since being a staff photographer, I traded away the rights to my photographs to my employer in exchange for a steady paycheck, health benefits, and easy access to a community of excellent journalists (thanks Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC).  But I have learned (or at least read about) as the Obama Poster Source Photo Mystery has traveled through the blogosphere. It started on sites for collectors and dealers of Shepard Fairey artwork, to photographers, to political junkies, then artists and illustrators, copyright lawyers and finally, after the Associated Press started talking compensation, the mainstream media. Then there were posts concerned with "government policy, technology and legal issues," and rephotographing photographs. There were comments posted all over from photographers outraged that artists transform photographs, portrait artists arguing about how to work from photographs, fair use lawyers and bloggers who don't like the Associated Press legal team for sending cease-and-desist and takedown letters when they post more than 80 words from original AP articles, and other artists and non-Democrats and far too many to link to who just don't like either Fairey's commercial success or his politics.

Even the Boston Police seemed to be making a point with his arrest. They accuse him of damaging property with graffiti in several locations and issued warrants for his arrest on January 24. But he's been all over Boston the past couple weeks, installing the exhibit, giving public talks and even creating outdoor art on the side of City Hall. So why, asked Boston Globe art writer Geoff Edgers yesterday, was Fairey, "arrested as he was walking into a giant party at the Institute of Contemporary Art, a party he was expected to star at. I wonder why he wasn't arrested on City Hall when he was standing next to the Mayor. Or at his hotel room. Or over a latte this morning."

Friday's arrest will just add to his reputation - in interviews he's said he had been arrested at least 14 times (previous one was in Denver for hanging his Obama poster during the Democratic National Convention). And we will be hearing about this for some time.

This is a new publishing platform for my blog, which was moved last week. The archives on the old publishing platform are here, including 366 Daily Photos from 2008. You'll find all the previous Obama poster source photo posts here.