Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Mystery Deepens




Oh dear. After my scoop "identifying" the source photograph and photographer of Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster, Purchase College digital photography teacher Nathan Lunstrum came up with a different image that appears to be a better and less convoluted match. Click here.

But no-one can identify the photographer and no-one has as yet identified themselves. So again, could the photographer who took this picture or someone who knows who took it please contact me?





7 comments:

John MacDonald said...

Ooooh, now this is interesting.

Nathan said...

James,

Here's as far as I've gotten

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/20/opinion/meyer/main2286816.shtml

So the image seems to be at least as old as the CBS article.

Classes start today so I'll be busy but this is really interesting, you can email me directly if you wish at

nlunstrum at gmail dot com

Christopher Paquette said...

There was a really good interview of Shepard Fairey yesterday on NPR. I don't know if it was live or not, but he went into a full explanation of how he created the poster and he was asked to give props to the photographer, to which he replied..."I don't know who the photographer is, But I would like to thank him or her."

Joe Holmes said...

I have to agree with Lunstrum -- the shadow on the collar and the precise position and look of the tie cinches it for me.

Barely related: I went to Harlem to watch the inauguration with a crowd outdoors at 125th Street and was surprised to find tears in my eyes as the speech ended. What a time we live in.

Unknown said...

This is fascinating! Keep up the sleuthing.

Anonymous said...

Oh, for goodness' sake. I already told you the source of the photo in a comment I left on your original article. (by the way, if you had an artistic eye, you would know that a "flipped" image of a face alters key elements of recognition and does not look like the person. Most artists will not flip a face used in a portrait for that reason. I can't believe you have a photography blog and didn't know that.)

Here's a link:
http://cyncity.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/clooneyobamailsudandarfur_regionglobalai.jpg

Here's another:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/images/2008/08/11/geoclooneybarackobamaap.jpg



It was taken at a news conference with Clooney, President Obama, and Senator Sam Brownback, about Darfur in April of 2006.

Please don't credit someone else with this. I am just an average graphic designer working at a university. There's probably tons of us designers who have noticed where this poster came from. Maybe I should start a blog.

Anonymous said...

this must finally be it!