March 29, 2009

FAIR USE? When is an artist’s appropriation of a journalistic photograph considered an “homage” and when is it just plain old-fashioned theft?

A recent piece in The New York Times by Noam Cohen explores a subject that has been in the art and journalism press a lot lately: the motives behind artist Shepard Fairey’s wholsesale “borrowing” of an Obama headshot - by AP’s Mannie Garcia – for Fairey’s famous Obama HOPE poster.

Fairey’s work is now on view, through August, at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.

CLICK!... A while back photography impresario Marvin Heiferman was kind enough to ask me to participate in the Smithsonian Institution’s photographic initiative “click! photography changes everything.” I complied and wrote a piece that borrowed from two sections of Watching the World Change concerning the September 2001 project, "2001," by the new-media artist Wolfgang Staehle.

This week, the Smithsonian invited the public to submit its own photographs and written responses to create a user-generated dialogue on how photography influences society. So... click on over to "click!"

…BY THE WAY… The reviews are coming in and the verdict is thumbs-up for Claire Castillon’s new book, My Mother Never Dies (Houghton Miflin) translated from the French.

…AND FINALLY… On VanityFair.com I try to clarify Obama Stimulus Package #17.