LA Times Culture Monster: photos vs. Shepard vs. photo

Photo credit: Christopher Knight

So a security guard asked Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight to put away his camera at the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston.

The guard was perfectly cordial and just doing her job. But I couldn't help note
the irony. A "no photographs" policy is in force in a show about an artist who
is currently trading lawsuits over his guerrilla (meaning unauthorized) use of
part of an Associated Press photographer's published picture of Obama. I'm
supportive of artists' full participation in the "democracy of images" that
seems to characterize our digital environment. I wonder what John Singleton
Copley and John Quincy Adams would think?

There's definitely a point here -- the artist who skyrockted to fame thanks to a poster based off of Associated Press photographer Mannie Garcia, has a major exhibit where that same poster is now off limits to patrons who just want to take a photo?

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