The mystery of the Obama Hope photo source

By GottaLaff

James Danziger, over at the Daily Beast, found the original photographer of the now-famous image used in the Fairey poster of Obama that we've all Obamicon'd. The guy had no idea it was his photo:

Reuters was initially—and understandably—put out that they hadn’t been credited as the original source of what turned out to be the presidential campaign’s most enduring visual image, but no laws had been broken.

Like it or not, Fairey's use of the picture is well within the parameters of what’s considered "fair use." His transformation of the image—flipping and re-orienting it, adding jacket, tie and the "O" Obama logo, and converting it to his block print style—make it consistent with all legal precedents for public use. (Fairey is the artist behind the now-famous Andre the Giant prints that are probably wheat-pasted all over your city.)

But perhaps the best proof that Fairey transformed the photo into something all his own is that Young, a Washington-based photographer who has taken, in his words, “thousands” of pictures of Obama, was not even aware that the most ubiquitous image of the election was based on his photograph. He’d seen the HOPE poster countless times and never made the connection to his own photograph, which he snapped at a 2007 Senate confirmation hearing.

Go read the whole article to follow the winding trail to the oblivious photographer. Imagine, not realizing it was your photo that was plastered everywhere on the Blogosphere and well, everywhere else.

I may take credit for an updated version of the Mona Lisa. I'll give her a new outfit, flip and re-orient, add a touch of make-up to her sly smile, and block print it. I could make a fortune! Anyone else in?

It would be like putting lipstick on a painting.

AP Photog Hussein Receives Press Freedom Award

Sweet, sweet in yer face wingers. They've been beating the Bilal Hussein drum for quite a while now.

Speaking by video link from the Middle East, AP photographer Bilal Hussein thanked the committee and others who pressed for his release during his two years and four days under U.S. military detention in which he was held without formal charges. He vowed to "forge ahead" with his work.

"I will not hesitate to put out the truth," he told more than 500 people attending the awards dinner.

In a separate video clip made for the ceremony, Hussein described the pressures of chronicling both sides of the conflict during some of the fiercest street battles of the Iraq war — images that were part of the AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo package in 2005.

"A journalist does not take sides," he said. "That's why he is the enemy of all."

Hussein was taken into U.S. military custody in April 2006 in the western city of Ramadi. He was released shortly after his second anniversary in U.S. hands after two Iraqi judicial amnesty committees ruled that there would be no trial on any of the accusations raised again Hussein.