Shepard Fairey has expressed his disappointment in Obama before, but maybe never with such strong language as he used on his own blog recently when discussing Edward Snowden’s release of documents relating to PRISM and other NSA domestic spying programs. The posters Fairey designed promoting Obama are some of the most iconic political images in a generation, but now Fairey writes, “The extent of Obama’s spying is unacceptable and I feel sickened and betrayed by someone I dedicated a huge amount of time, energy, and money to support based on the way he presented his views as the antithesis of Bush’s. The charge of Edward Snowden with espionage for exposing the Prism program only dims my view of the Obama administration further.”
In the same blog post, Fairey defends Snowden writing, “I got choked up today thinking of the courage it takes to expose a horrible problem when you know you will be brutalized as a consequence. I see nationalism as falling in line with the govt. agenda regardless of how morally flawed it is, while I see patriotism as doing what pushes the country in a morally superior direction, even if it conflicts with govt. policy. We need more patriots and fewer nationalists.”
There have been a few great parodies of Fairey’s Obama images in light of Snowden’s revelations, and Fairey told the LA Times that he’s happy that people are subverting his work to critique Obama.
You can read Fairey’s full post about Snowden, Bradley Manning, and Prism here and his full comments to the LA Times here.
Photo by Daquella manera