Barack Obama "Hope" poster
In February 2012, Fairey pleaded guilty to destroying and fabricating evidence showing that he had used the photograph; in September, he was sentenced to two years of probation, 300 hours of community service, and a fine of $25,000.
In October 2007, Shepard Fairey, who had created political street art critical of the US government and George W. Bush, discussed the Obama presidential campaign with publicist Yosi Sergant.
[5] Using Google Image Search, Fairey found a photograph of Obama taken by freelancer Mannie Garcia for the Associated Press,[6][7] and created a poster design in a day.
The original image had the word "progress" and featured Fairey's signature obey star—a symbol associated with his Andre the Giant Has a Posse street art campaign—embedded in the Obama campaign's sunrise logo.
Heller saw it as part of a tradition of contemporary artists drawing inspiration from political candidates and producing "posters that break the mold not only in terms of color and style but also in message and tone".
Beginning with that sale and continuing throughout the campaign, Fairey used proceeds from selling the image to produce more; after first printing, he made 4,000 more that were distributed at Obama rallies before Super Tuesday.
In addition, throughout the duration of the campaign, over 1,000,000 stickers were printed and disseminated by Stickerobot.com[10] as well as clothing and other items with the image sold through Fairey's website.
[14] The Gold serigraphs were released just after Obama's inauguration, and are the third and final edition of Fairey's Hope prints of the president.
[15] According to Guardian journalist Laura Barton, the image had "acquired the kind of instant recognition of Jim Fitzpatrick's Che Guevara poster".
[16] In an interview with Esquire in 2015, Fairey said that Obama had not met his expectations as president, citing his use of drones and Domestic Spying.
He produced two other versions, based on different photographs, officially on behalf of the Obama campaign,[22] and another to serve as the cover of the Person of the Year issue of Time.
[24] Firas Alkhateeb, the student who designed the controversial Obama "Joker" image, cited Fairey as his greatest influence.
[26][27] The September 2009 issue of The Advocate, America's oldest-continuing LGBT publication, featured a cover image similar to Fairey's design.
[28] Shepard Fairey created an adaptation of the Obama HOPE poster for satirical Kentucky politician Honest Gil Fulbright.
[31] In February 2015, online activism campaign abbottsolutelynot.com launched a donation service to publish billboards in Sydney with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's portrait captioned "HOPELESS".
Garcia took the photograph at a 2006 media event with Kansas senator Sam Brownback, where the actor George Clooney was raising awareness of the War in Darfur after a trip to Sudan he had taken with his father.
[41] In October 2009, Fairey admitted that he had based the poster on the AP photograph and had fabricated and destroyed evidence to hide the fact.
"[44] In a separate criminal action, federal prosecutors suggested that Fairey should face prison time for the destruction of evidence in the case, with the government sentencing request stating that "[a] sentence without any term of imprisonment sends a terrible message to those who might commit the same sort of criminal conduct.
