The ongoing tale of Shepard Fairey

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Anyone who is interested in street and political art in Los Angeles probably has known about Shepard Fairey longer than they’ve known about Barack Obama. The Times has been following him since 2004 and first profiled him in 2007.

But this is clearly his time. His ‘Hope’ poster of candidate Obama turned from guerrilla art to refrigerator magnet to a spot on the wall of the National Portrait Gallery, left. Now it’s the object of a lawsuit of a copyright infringement claim over the original photo. He was even named a ‘character approved’ by cable’s USA Network.

The Times’ Sachi Cunningham recently turned her video camera on Fairey to hear about the now-iconic poster and see how things work in his studio.

— Sherry Stern