Iconic Obama Poster:
AP Answers Shepard Fairey Lawsuit, Accuses Artist of Infringement
March 11, 2009
Updated 6:20 p.m. ET with a statement from Fairey.
From: http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/content_display/photo-news/legal-news/e3i71419f4d58d0cd4c5fc9e722ce883515
The Associated Press paints Shepard Fairey as a hypocrite who acted in bad faith in a counterclaim accusing the artist of copyright infringement.
On Wednesday the AP filed its answer to a lawsuit brought last month by Fairey’s attorneys. The AP and Fairey are locked in a dispute over the graphic artist’s famous Barack Obama posters, which feature an illustration based on a 2006 AP photograph by Mannie Garcia.
Fairey says his use of the photograph falls under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law. The AP says Fairey infringed on its copyright and the news organization is entitled to licensing fees and damages.
The AP’s counterclaim accuses Fairey of copyright infringement, violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and filing a fraudulent registration with the Copyright Office. The AP seeks the dismissal of Fairey’s lawsuit and unspecified damages, including any profits Fairey and his company, Obey Giant Art, made from the image.
Through a spokesperson, Fairey said Wednesday that he is "disappointed the Associated Press is persisting in its misguided accusations of copyright infringement," and added that he had created the poster to support Obama, not to make money.
The dueling lawsuits are specifically about copyright law, but also concern the nature of newsgathering, political speech, commercialism and art.
“News photography is an art form that requires skill, artistic judgment, dedication, countless hours of preparation and imagination,” the AP counterclaim says.
The AP says Fairey processed the AP photo on his computer, but his creation is “virtually identical” and retains “the heart and essence of the AP’s photo, including but not limited to its patriotic theme.”
The AP approached Fairey in January, after a group of bloggers identified the source image for Fairey’s poster as a photo by Garcia. The negotiation between the two camps' lawyers quickly broke down, and on February 9 Fairey filed a preemptive lawsuit seeking a decision that his design is protected under Fair Use.
The AP’s counterclaim tries to show that the artist has made money off the works of others while acting “hypocritically and aggressively” in protecting his own intellectual property.
The lawsuit shows another Obama poster design that the AP says Fairey created based on a photograph by David Turnley. For that design, according to the AP, Fairey obtained Turnley’s permission and did not use the design on merchandise. The AP says this shows Fairey recognized that “he was required to obtain permission and give appropriate credit” to the copyright holder.
Elsewhere in the countersuit, the AP emphasizes that asking AP for permission would have been “easy and relatively inexpensive.”
Much of Fairey’s work borrows work from other artists, the countersuit says. But it cites a series of letters Fairey sent to fellow artist Baxter Orr last year asking Orr to stop using a design that copied one of Fairey’s well-known “Obey” images. “Fairey is hardly a champion of the First Amendment,” the AP says.
The AP claims that Fairey and Obey Giant Art “have attempted to cloak their actions in the guise of politics and art,” while profiting from their work. The AP believes Fairey and his company have made more than $400,000 in profits from Obama design and related merchandise.
Addressing Fairey’s February lawsuit, the AP says Fairey deliberately cited the wrong AP photo as his source image. The Fairey lawsuit cited a Garcia photo that included both then-Senator Obama and actor George Clooney. That photo is not as close of a match to the poster as a different Garcia photograph from the same event that shows only Obama. The AP says this misidentification “can only be understood as a deliberate attempt to obscure the Obama Photo as the true source material for the Infringing Works and to minimize the nature and extent of Fairey’s unauthorized copying of the Obama Photo.”
Seeking to win goodwill, the AP’s countersuit talks up the importance of the news cooperative and its right to collect licensing revenue, "particularly in these difficult times.” The AP suit also cites Fairey’s arrest record for “graffiti, vandalism and related crimes,” as evidence of his disregard for property rights.
Garcia previously told PDN he’s not sure the Associated Press owns the copyright to his photograph. However, the AP says it registered the photograph with the Copyright Office and Fairey has not contested the AP’s ownership of the photograph.
The AP’s 61-page counterclaim was prepared by attorneys from the firm of Kirkland & Ellis and was filed in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
Fairey's complete statement Thursday said: "I am disappointed the Associated Press is persisting in its misguided accusations of copyright infringement. I believe that my use of the Mannie Garcia photo as a reference, which I acknowledged off the bat as an AP photograph, falls under “fair use” provisions laid out in the law. I am even more disappointed the AP is now trying to distort the facts surrounding my work. They suggest my purpose in creating the poster was to merchandise it and make money. It wasn't. My entire purpose in creating the poster was to support Obama and help get him elected. Money was never the point. The proceeds that were generated from the poster were used to create more posters and donated to charity. I look forward to disproving the AP's accusations once and for all and upholding the free expression rights at stake here."
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Thursday, March 26, 2009
'Armed' chimps go wild for honey
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
Cameras have revealed how "armed" chimpanzees raid beehives to gorge on sweet honey.
Scientists in the Republic of Congo found that the wild primates crafted large clubs from branches to pound the nests until they broke open.
The team said some chimps would also use a "toolkit" of different wooden implements in a bid to access the honey and satisfy their sweet tooth.
The study is published in the International Journal of Primatology.
Crickette Sanz, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "The nutritional returns don't seem to be that great.
"But their excitement when they've succeeded is incredible, you can see how much they are enjoying tasting the honey."
Honey monsters
Chimps' love of honey and their ingenuity at accessing it are well known amongst primatologists - previous studies have revealed how the great apes can fashion sticks to dip into or prise open nests. The chimps will go up there and hang at all sorts of precarious angles to get to the honey
Crickette Sanz
But until now, nobody realised how prevalent the beehive-bashing behaviour was amongst chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle in the Congo Basin.
Dr Sanz said: "It seems these chimps in central Africa have developed more sophisticated techniques for getting at the honey than populations in eastern and western Africa - maybe it is some kind of regional feature."
Perhaps for obvious reasons, the chimps avoided bee species that sting, targeting the hives of stingless bees instead.
The chimps can spend hours trying to access the honey
Dr Sanz told the BBC: "But these nests are tough to get into - they can be at the top of the forest canopy, at the end of a branch - and the chimps will go up there and hang at all sorts of precarious angles to get to the honey, using these clubs in any way that they can to access it."
The video footage, which was filmed by the researchers over four years, revealed the chimps' sheer determination to get at the sweet stuff.
Dr Sanz explained: "Nobody knew they would pound over 1,000 times to get to the honey.
"Sometimes it could take several hours - they would start in the morning at around 1000, then take some rests, and then finish up at about 1400 or 1500 in the afternoon.
"It is quite physically challenging - in the videos you can see how large those pounding clubs are - some weigh over a kilogram."
Advertisement
Success at last - the researchers say the chimps have a real sweet tooth
The primatologists also found that the Congo chimps' tool use was more sophisticated than previously thought.
David Morgan, a co-author on the study from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, said: "One of the most exciting aspects is that they are using multiple tools to access the honey that is in these hives.
"They have a tool kit ready when they go for honey.
Chimps craft ultimate fishing rod
"They will have large pounding clubs and they'll use those to hammer the hives.
"And if that doesn't do, if the holes are too small, then they'll access them using smaller, thinner dipping wands. And they are also using smaller sticks for leverage to get better access to the hive."
The researchers also said that once the chimps had spotted and then crafted a suitable club from a branch, by pulling off unwanted twigs and leaves with their teeth or hands, they would set it aside for later use.
Dr Morgan said: "They cache them in the canopy."
Last week, the same team also reported how Goualougo Triangle chimps were crafting fishing rods with a brush-tipped end to fish for termites, and the scientists say there is still much to learn about tool use in these chimps.
However, they told the BBC that the chimps' future was uncertain, as the primates and their habitat were under threat.
Dr Morgan said: "These beehives are found in tree species that are exploited for logging, so this could be a direct affect we have on their behaviour, their feeding and their conservation."
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
Cameras have revealed how "armed" chimpanzees raid beehives to gorge on sweet honey.
Scientists in the Republic of Congo found that the wild primates crafted large clubs from branches to pound the nests until they broke open.
The team said some chimps would also use a "toolkit" of different wooden implements in a bid to access the honey and satisfy their sweet tooth.
The study is published in the International Journal of Primatology.
Crickette Sanz, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "The nutritional returns don't seem to be that great.
"But their excitement when they've succeeded is incredible, you can see how much they are enjoying tasting the honey."
Honey monsters
Chimps' love of honey and their ingenuity at accessing it are well known amongst primatologists - previous studies have revealed how the great apes can fashion sticks to dip into or prise open nests. The chimps will go up there and hang at all sorts of precarious angles to get to the honey
Crickette Sanz
But until now, nobody realised how prevalent the beehive-bashing behaviour was amongst chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle in the Congo Basin.
Dr Sanz said: "It seems these chimps in central Africa have developed more sophisticated techniques for getting at the honey than populations in eastern and western Africa - maybe it is some kind of regional feature."
Perhaps for obvious reasons, the chimps avoided bee species that sting, targeting the hives of stingless bees instead.
The chimps can spend hours trying to access the honey
Dr Sanz told the BBC: "But these nests are tough to get into - they can be at the top of the forest canopy, at the end of a branch - and the chimps will go up there and hang at all sorts of precarious angles to get to the honey, using these clubs in any way that they can to access it."
The video footage, which was filmed by the researchers over four years, revealed the chimps' sheer determination to get at the sweet stuff.
Dr Sanz explained: "Nobody knew they would pound over 1,000 times to get to the honey.
"Sometimes it could take several hours - they would start in the morning at around 1000, then take some rests, and then finish up at about 1400 or 1500 in the afternoon.
"It is quite physically challenging - in the videos you can see how large those pounding clubs are - some weigh over a kilogram."
Advertisement
Success at last - the researchers say the chimps have a real sweet tooth
The primatologists also found that the Congo chimps' tool use was more sophisticated than previously thought.
David Morgan, a co-author on the study from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, said: "One of the most exciting aspects is that they are using multiple tools to access the honey that is in these hives.
"They have a tool kit ready when they go for honey.
Chimps craft ultimate fishing rod
"They will have large pounding clubs and they'll use those to hammer the hives.
"And if that doesn't do, if the holes are too small, then they'll access them using smaller, thinner dipping wands. And they are also using smaller sticks for leverage to get better access to the hive."
The researchers also said that once the chimps had spotted and then crafted a suitable club from a branch, by pulling off unwanted twigs and leaves with their teeth or hands, they would set it aside for later use.
Dr Morgan said: "They cache them in the canopy."
Last week, the same team also reported how Goualougo Triangle chimps were crafting fishing rods with a brush-tipped end to fish for termites, and the scientists say there is still much to learn about tool use in these chimps.
However, they told the BBC that the chimps' future was uncertain, as the primates and their habitat were under threat.
Dr Morgan said: "These beehives are found in tree species that are exploited for logging, so this could be a direct affect we have on their behaviour, their feeding and their conservation."
Friday, March 20, 2009
Food, wine and the fine art of sketching
By CATHERINE LANGSTON, Special to the GazetteFebruary 28, 2009
From: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Entertainment/Food+wine+fine+sketching/1338411/story.html
Squinting into the dimly lit foyer, I pressed the door buzzer beside the peel-off label reading Galerie Synesthésie. Seconds later, I was buzzed off the short, edgy stretch of Ste. Catherine St. E. near St. Laurent Blvd., and into the gallery's drawing workshop. It was like flipping the channel from a black-and-white indie documentary on street kids to a reality show in hyper-colour about an artist's loft.
But reality TV had nothing on the gallery's live model workshop when I walked in that Saturday afternoon to try my hand at sketching. A dozen-plus artists were grouped at work stations throughout the airy studio loft, preparing their materials and chatting. The model was stretching before her job under the bright lights. Soft music drifted around the long run of high-ceilinged space. Bowls of juicy grapes, ripe berries, salted nuts and chocolate biscuits surrounded a fresh baguette and cheeses. Red and white wine was on tap.
This was a drawing workshop?
"With sensory stimulus, people draw links between different sources of inspiration," explained owner Anthony Walsh, who's been running Galerie Synesthésie, which holds live model drawing sessions, art classes, and art exhibitions, since 2007.
Stimuli such as music, food or alcohol light up the brain's pleasure zones, he said, making the world, or in this case the drawing workshop, a more magical place.
Except that no one was draining the wine cartons dry. In fact, the artists seemed rooted by the challenge of rapidly sketching their impressions of the model before each 60-second pose dissolved then reformed into another. The short poses "get people into a creative state of flow" where they stop being self-critical, said Walsh, a master's student in Université de Montréal's psychology program.
So forget that Grade 2 teacher's warning not to colour outside the lines. Unlike our artistically suppressed
7-year-old selves, the sketchers at this gallery simply turn the page on their errors. And it works: halfway into the three-hour session, the Nefertiti-like necks and football shoulders of my earlier sketches had shrunk to more realistic shapes and proportions.
Art therapist Thomas Shortliffe agrees that over-rationalizing blocks the creative process, but said self-critiquing can aid growth.
"Through art, we understand about our creative process ... at the end of the process, we feel more secure in the development of our abilities," said Shortliffe, who holds a graduate degree in art therapy from Concordia University.
CÉGEP teacher and workshop regular Jane Petring said her sense of accomplishment is "related to how satisfied I am with what I produce. If I'm not working at developing (my abilities), I don't want to go there."
Walsh agreed, adding that by learning to use artists' tools for measuring angles and distances, for example, participants can start to put what they see on paper.
Sure enough, three hours and countless poses later, my first short, light, careful pencil strokes on newsprint had gradually been worked into firmer, darker, more fluid lines that captured some of the model's form and energy. And when the model stirred from her last long pose, I picked up my wine glass to toast myself for pushing past an ordinary glass door into an exceptional place.
Galerie Synesthésie is at 94 Ste. Catherine St. E., Suite 7. The three-hour sketching sessions with live models are open to everyone. Cost is $15. Sessions are on Saturdays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 2:30 to 5:30 pm. For more information, visit www.galeriesynesthesie.com or call 514-998-7625
By CATHERINE LANGSTON, Special to the GazetteFebruary 28, 2009
From: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Entertainment/Food+wine+fine+sketching/1338411/story.html
Squinting into the dimly lit foyer, I pressed the door buzzer beside the peel-off label reading Galerie Synesthésie. Seconds later, I was buzzed off the short, edgy stretch of Ste. Catherine St. E. near St. Laurent Blvd., and into the gallery's drawing workshop. It was like flipping the channel from a black-and-white indie documentary on street kids to a reality show in hyper-colour about an artist's loft.
But reality TV had nothing on the gallery's live model workshop when I walked in that Saturday afternoon to try my hand at sketching. A dozen-plus artists were grouped at work stations throughout the airy studio loft, preparing their materials and chatting. The model was stretching before her job under the bright lights. Soft music drifted around the long run of high-ceilinged space. Bowls of juicy grapes, ripe berries, salted nuts and chocolate biscuits surrounded a fresh baguette and cheeses. Red and white wine was on tap.
This was a drawing workshop?
"With sensory stimulus, people draw links between different sources of inspiration," explained owner Anthony Walsh, who's been running Galerie Synesthésie, which holds live model drawing sessions, art classes, and art exhibitions, since 2007.
Stimuli such as music, food or alcohol light up the brain's pleasure zones, he said, making the world, or in this case the drawing workshop, a more magical place.
Except that no one was draining the wine cartons dry. In fact, the artists seemed rooted by the challenge of rapidly sketching their impressions of the model before each 60-second pose dissolved then reformed into another. The short poses "get people into a creative state of flow" where they stop being self-critical, said Walsh, a master's student in Université de Montréal's psychology program.
So forget that Grade 2 teacher's warning not to colour outside the lines. Unlike our artistically suppressed
7-year-old selves, the sketchers at this gallery simply turn the page on their errors. And it works: halfway into the three-hour session, the Nefertiti-like necks and football shoulders of my earlier sketches had shrunk to more realistic shapes and proportions.
Art therapist Thomas Shortliffe agrees that over-rationalizing blocks the creative process, but said self-critiquing can aid growth.
"Through art, we understand about our creative process ... at the end of the process, we feel more secure in the development of our abilities," said Shortliffe, who holds a graduate degree in art therapy from Concordia University.
CÉGEP teacher and workshop regular Jane Petring said her sense of accomplishment is "related to how satisfied I am with what I produce. If I'm not working at developing (my abilities), I don't want to go there."
Walsh agreed, adding that by learning to use artists' tools for measuring angles and distances, for example, participants can start to put what they see on paper.
Sure enough, three hours and countless poses later, my first short, light, careful pencil strokes on newsprint had gradually been worked into firmer, darker, more fluid lines that captured some of the model's form and energy. And when the model stirred from her last long pose, I picked up my wine glass to toast myself for pushing past an ordinary glass door into an exceptional place.
Galerie Synesthésie is at 94 Ste. Catherine St. E., Suite 7. The three-hour sketching sessions with live models are open to everyone. Cost is $15. Sessions are on Saturdays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 2:30 to 5:30 pm. For more information, visit www.galeriesynesthesie.com or call 514-998-7625
Blobs in Photos of Mars Lander Stir a Debate: Are They Water?
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: March 16, 2009
Several photographs taken by NASA’s Phoenix Mars spacecraft show what look like water droplets clinging to one of its landing struts.
Some of the scientists working on the mission are asserting that that is exactly what they were. They contend that there are pockets of liquid water just under the Martian surface even though the temperatures in the northern plains never warmed above minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit during the six months of Phoenix’s operations last year.
The scientists believe that salts may have lowered the freezing temperature of the Martian water droplets to perhaps minus 90 degrees, or more than 120 degrees colder than the usual freezing temperature of 32 degrees for pure water.
Nilton O. Renno, a professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan who proposed the hypothesis, was careful to say, “This is not a proof.”
But he added: “I think the evidence is overwhelming. It’s not circumstantial evidence.”
Dr. Renno will present his data and arguments this month in a talk at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, and he is the lead author among 22 authors of a scientific paper submitted to The Journal of Geophysical Research.
Others are completely unconvinced. “There are simpler explanations,” said Michael H. Hecht, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a co-investigator of the Phoenix’s wet chemistry instrument. Dr. Hecht, who described himself as the “designated curmudgeon,” said he believed that the process proposed by Dr. Renno to describe the formation and movement of water droplets was “flat-out wrong for these materials.”
Peter H. Smith, the mission’s principal investigator, is left to mediate the disagreement. He wonders whether the material, splashed up and possibly transformed by the heat and spray of chemicals from the thrusters when Phoenix landed, tells much or anything at all about the conditions on Mars.
Because of the lack of consensus, the Phoenix science team never brought up the liquid droplet hypothesis during any of the NASA news conferences.
The core facts are not in dispute. There were blobs on the strut. The blobs changed and moved over time before disappearing later in the mission.
The scientists also agree that the fundamental physics of Dr. Renno’s hypothesis is sound. And it dovetails with the major undisputed finding of the Phoenix mission: the unexpected discovery of chemicals known as perchlorates in the soil.
Perchlorates are salts, and if they were dissolved in high enough concentrations in water, the resulting brine would be a liquid at Martian surface temperatures.
Dr. Renno believes that Phoenix’s thrusters splashed a pocket of brine from just below the surface to the landing strut. He said the salts would have absorbed water vapor from the air, explaining how they appeared to grow in size during the first 44 Martian days before slowly evaporating as the temperatures dropped.
But Dr. Hecht believes that the droplet shape was in part a trick of low-resolution images and lighting. His simpler explanation is that these were just small clumps of frost.
The central scientific disagreement is whether the landing strut was warmer or colder than the ground. Exposed ice seen below the lander was clearly disappearing over time, vanishing into water vapor. Dr. Renno maintains that because of the heating systems on the spacecraft, the landing struts were warmer than the ground, and it is thermodynamically impossible for simple water frost to move from the cold ground to the warmer leg. But perchlorate salt could act as a sponge to absorb water vapor.
Dr. Hecht said that the strut was in the shadow of the lander and that the ground was in sunshine, so the leg was colder.
The Phoenix Mars lander, as expected, froze to death in November with the oncoming winter. But Dr. Renno and collaborators in Spain have been conducting experiments to see if they can replicate the behavior on Earth.
“The initial results,” Dr. Renno said, “are consistent with what we see as liquid water.”
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: March 16, 2009
Several photographs taken by NASA’s Phoenix Mars spacecraft show what look like water droplets clinging to one of its landing struts.
Some of the scientists working on the mission are asserting that that is exactly what they were. They contend that there are pockets of liquid water just under the Martian surface even though the temperatures in the northern plains never warmed above minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit during the six months of Phoenix’s operations last year.
The scientists believe that salts may have lowered the freezing temperature of the Martian water droplets to perhaps minus 90 degrees, or more than 120 degrees colder than the usual freezing temperature of 32 degrees for pure water.
Nilton O. Renno, a professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan who proposed the hypothesis, was careful to say, “This is not a proof.”
But he added: “I think the evidence is overwhelming. It’s not circumstantial evidence.”
Dr. Renno will present his data and arguments this month in a talk at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, and he is the lead author among 22 authors of a scientific paper submitted to The Journal of Geophysical Research.
Others are completely unconvinced. “There are simpler explanations,” said Michael H. Hecht, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a co-investigator of the Phoenix’s wet chemistry instrument. Dr. Hecht, who described himself as the “designated curmudgeon,” said he believed that the process proposed by Dr. Renno to describe the formation and movement of water droplets was “flat-out wrong for these materials.”
Peter H. Smith, the mission’s principal investigator, is left to mediate the disagreement. He wonders whether the material, splashed up and possibly transformed by the heat and spray of chemicals from the thrusters when Phoenix landed, tells much or anything at all about the conditions on Mars.
Because of the lack of consensus, the Phoenix science team never brought up the liquid droplet hypothesis during any of the NASA news conferences.
The core facts are not in dispute. There were blobs on the strut. The blobs changed and moved over time before disappearing later in the mission.
The scientists also agree that the fundamental physics of Dr. Renno’s hypothesis is sound. And it dovetails with the major undisputed finding of the Phoenix mission: the unexpected discovery of chemicals known as perchlorates in the soil.
Perchlorates are salts, and if they were dissolved in high enough concentrations in water, the resulting brine would be a liquid at Martian surface temperatures.
Dr. Renno believes that Phoenix’s thrusters splashed a pocket of brine from just below the surface to the landing strut. He said the salts would have absorbed water vapor from the air, explaining how they appeared to grow in size during the first 44 Martian days before slowly evaporating as the temperatures dropped.
But Dr. Hecht believes that the droplet shape was in part a trick of low-resolution images and lighting. His simpler explanation is that these were just small clumps of frost.
The central scientific disagreement is whether the landing strut was warmer or colder than the ground. Exposed ice seen below the lander was clearly disappearing over time, vanishing into water vapor. Dr. Renno maintains that because of the heating systems on the spacecraft, the landing struts were warmer than the ground, and it is thermodynamically impossible for simple water frost to move from the cold ground to the warmer leg. But perchlorate salt could act as a sponge to absorb water vapor.
Dr. Hecht said that the strut was in the shadow of the lander and that the ground was in sunshine, so the leg was colder.
The Phoenix Mars lander, as expected, froze to death in November with the oncoming winter. But Dr. Renno and collaborators in Spain have been conducting experiments to see if they can replicate the behavior on Earth.
“The initial results,” Dr. Renno said, “are consistent with what we see as liquid water.”
Photographer, warrior linked by famous news image die on same day
It was an iconic image of the 1990 Oka Crisis: A masked Mohawk warrior raises his rifle in victory as he stands atop an overturned Surete du Quebec squad car.
By Jeff Heinrich, Montreal Gazette; Canwest News ServiceMarch 14, 2009
From: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Photographer+warrior+linked+famous+news+image+same/1389489/story.html
Now both the warrior and the photographer who took his picture are dead -- both at the same young age, 41, both on the same day, and both in tragic circumstances.
Richard Nicholas was killed Tuesday afternoon in a car crash outside Oka.
Tom Hanson, a Canadian Press photographer, collapsed and died a few hours later, playing hockey in Ottawa.
"It kind of gives people goosebumps," said Nicholas' cousin Sonya Gagnier, a Kanesatake band councillor.
"To think that the very man who took that picture died on the same day at the same age -- how miraculous is it that something like that would happen?" Nicholas and Hanson never met, but the photo is legendary in Kanesatake. "Everybody has copies of that picture -- it's so significant for the people here," said Gagnier.
In another strange twist, the accident that killed Nicholas was on Highway 344 -- the same highway he helped block during the Oka Crisis when the picture was taken.
A photograph similar to this one was shot by Canadian Press photographer Tom Hanson in July of 1990. Here, Mohawk warrior Richard Nicholas stands atop an overturned Surete du Quebec van on Highway 344 on Day 1 of the Oka crisis. The Quebec government eventually called in the Canadian Forces to end the standoff, which lasted 78 days.
Photograph by: John Kenney, Montreal Gazette, Canwest News Service, File, Montreal Gazette; Canwest News Service
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