Photographer Mannie Garcia, who shot the image on the right, says he does not want to fight Shepard Fairey over Fairey's Obama poster.
Photographer Mannie Garcia spoke to PDN Thursday, a day after the Associated Press released a statement saying it was in talks with Fairey’s attorney over the use of the image. The AP claims it owns the copyright to the image and Fairey’s use of it required permission.
“I’m concerned about it, but this is a unique situation,” Garcia said. “This is not just some artist who ripped something off. It’s more unique and more complicated than that. This is about the 44th President of the United States. I am not going to do anything to subvert this presidency.”
Garcia also questions whether the AP even owns the copyright to the photo. He says that he was not on the AP staff at the time the photo was taken, and never signed the AP’s freelancer agreement. He said he has had several conversations with AP managers in recent days about ownership of the image, adding, “I never wanted to fight the AP.”
Garcia says he worked for the Associated Press as a temporary Washington photographer for six weeks in 2006. He says he was not considered a staff member, and that he has never signed an AP freelancer agreement because he doesn’t approve of the terms in the contract. Asked if this punches a hole in the AP’s copyright claim, Garcia said yes.
Associated Press spokesperson Paul Colford says Garcia’s photo is definitely theirs. “Mannie Garcia was clearly employed by AP when he took the photograph, and the photograph is clearly the property of The Associated Press,” Colford said in an e-mail.
Garcia said several times that he didn’t want to fight with Fairey or with the AP.
Garcia says he didn’t realize the Fairey poster was based on his photograph until opening an e-mail from Philadelphia Inquirer photographer Tom Gralish the day of Obama’s inauguration. Through his blog, Gralish led an online investigation to indentify the news photo Fairey used for the basis of his poster.
Garcia sounded reflective when asked how he felt about the use of his image on the celebrated poster.
“From my perspective, it’s pretty cool,” he said. “I’m proud of the image. It’s great that it had the effect that it did. The process? I don’t know. I guess that’s for the lawyers to figure out.”
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Feb. 4: AP Claims Shepard Fairey's Obama Poster Infringes on Copyright
