The artist behind Barack Obama’s iconic “Hope” poster creates a new work for Kamala Harris

Shepard Fairey has not created a poster for Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, but he reiterates his support for the Democrats for the November presidential election, creating a poster similar to one created during Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Like a feeling of déjà vu. American artist Shepard Fairey, who created the legendary “Hope” poster, an important marker of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, has reproduced a new, similar work in honor of Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for the November 2024 presidential election.

This time the message is no longer “Hope” but “Forward”. Kamala Harris is depicted in shades of blue, with pearl earrings and necklace, and red lips, looking into the future. In a message published on X on August 15, Shepard Fairey justifies his artistic choice: “I believe that Vice President Kamala Harris and her vice presidential pick Tim Walz are our best chance to move forward. They are our best chance to push back against encroaching fascism and threats to democracy, and our best chance to create the world we all want and deserve.”

Democratic activists were quick to relay this welcome publicity stunt on social media, just a few months before the election. Associated with the 2008 poster for Barack Obama, the resemblance between the two works is all the more striking.

Above all, beyond the artistic, it is indeed a political message sent by Shepard Fairey. In 2015, he had acknowledged his disappointment about the compromises negotiated by Barack Obama during his term. Having cooled down, he had not then produced a poster in favor of Hillary Clinton for the 2016 election and had instead preferred to draw anti-Trump works.

No new poster for Joe Biden, either, during the 2020 election. Shepard Fairey has his preferences and openly supports only candidates who, in his eyes, propose a sufficiently innovative and progressive program to improve the daily lives of Americans. This is how he joined forces in 2021 with the NGO Greenpeace USA to create a poster calling on the American president to act more forcefully in favor of the climate.

With this “Forward” poster for Kamala Harris, Shepard Fairey seems to indicate that he associates the Democratic candidate’s campaign with a hope for change similar to that generated by Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. It remains to be seen whether the election result will be the same.