The Street Artist Who Won’t Quit: The Story Of Shepard Fairey

Fairey Changed His Approach

Fairey’s early propaganda work set the precedent of him using his medium to stand up for what he believes in. He told Interview, “I created the Obama image with a little bit of a different intention than a lot of other stuff that I make… I worked very hard in 2004 to make anti-Bush imagery. But then Bush got reelected, and so I thought I needed to reevaluate my approach to mainstream politics. At that point, I’d had a kid, a daughter, and as the 2008 election campaign was beginning… I started to think, ‘This isn’t about me augmenting my existing brand of pissed-off rebellion. This is about my daughters’ future.'”