Scene on the Road

(UPDATE: The actual source photographer is MANNIE GARCIA, a Washington D.C. based freelancer who was on assignment for the Associated Press when he shot the photo in 2006. Click here for more.)

"I think I found it: It's from Time Magazine, February 2007. I've put them together to be sure. http://www.webkist.com/ " (Mike Cramer)

That's the comment I got on my blog this afternoon. Mike Cramer, a computer programmer who does work for PBS and others from his home just a few blocks away from the Inquirer Building right here in Philadelphia solved the mystery of who is the photographer whose photo of Barack Obama was used by artist Shepard Fairey as the basis for his iconic PROGRESS / HOPE / CHANGE posters.

The picture was made by Reuters photographer Jim Young.

Mike found it the same way the artist did: a Google images search. He told me, "I was avoiding doing work...just figured 'obama 2007' would be a reasonable search term...My wife laughed when I told her it appeared on page 20-something. I think she would have given up by then."

So he copied and then played with the photo, "stretching it a bit - really, a tiny amount - and flipped it horizontally, but didn't need to rotate it at all." He then posted the effort on his Flickr page and his website and left me a note. That's his evidence at the top.

After hearing from Mike, I also copied and played with Jim's photo. I used the "flip canvas horizontal" rotate image command in Photoshop, and made a quick mask using the "photocopy" sketch filter. And just like Mike, after only a minimum of effort in layers, I also confirmed that while the ears weren't quite right, everything else about the two images lined up pretty darn close. This is my quick effort.

Mike's wife is an illustrator, and he's seen her working, so he figured, "Fairey...he surely tweaked it plenty. And even so, the eyes & mouth & nose line up too well for it to be a coincidence."

Fairey has told interviewers he went on the internet and found a photo of Obama, then did "my thing to it."

I was almost convinced I finally knew whose photo that was, but to be 100 percent sure, I just needed to talk to Jim Young.

He is based in the Reuters bureau in Washington, DC, and forwarded my email to his boss, Gary Hershorn, Pictures Editor for North America, in New York. Gary said "we must have all seen that poster hundreds of times and never put it together." But after seeing Mike's work, and flipping the photo tonight himself, he decided: "Looks like a perfect match to me. It's great that the photographer who shot the original photo will get the credit. That's just great."

Then he looked it up for me. The photo was taken by Young in Washington on January 30, 2007. The caption reads: "Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) listens to testimony during the confirmation hearings for Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Capitol Hill."

Young later told me he remembers shooting two other assignments that day, and sent three different head shots of Obama. But didn't think they were anything special. Even though "he hadn't announced yet," Young recalled, "there was of course anticipation he might run for president."

That was two years ago. In the meantime, Jim has probably shot thousands of pictures of Obama, saying, "It was a great story, very historic." He traveled with the candidate for most of the year, and photographed all the key events: The win in Iowa, a loss in New Hampshire, the European trip, Joe Biden's selection as running mate, the Denver convention, and election night in Chicago's Grant Park. "I saw that poster all over the place, all year. For a lot of people it symbolized the campaign. It meant so much to so many people." Jim says the news that it's his photo "totally came out of the blue." Never in all that time, he says, did it even occur to Jim that it was his picture that the artist started with. "I'm flattered it's a real honor. A great honor that an image of mine was used this way."

The photographers working on the campaign all got used to seeing their photos at rallies - printed on t-shirts, attached to signs. "Its been talked about, how often other photographers images have been reproduced," he says of the ease with which pictures can be downloaded from the web. He and the other photographers also made dozens of photos of the Obama HOPE poster. "I don't think any of us thought for an instant that it might be one of our photos. I just assumed it was from the campaign."

Jim made these photos - of HIS poster - just a few weeks before the election, as Obama made a surprise stop at campaign headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri before a big downtown rally. He even shot a version of the poster "flipped" as he photographed Obama supporters on the outside looking in through a window. "It could have been anybody's picture. I can't believe it's mine.

"I'm honored, but I'm glad it didn't come out until after the campaign," Jim said. "I think even if I had known it was mine, I would have kept quiet. It would be just my little secret..."