One day while riding the bus home from work I spotted an Obama “Hope” poster. This is not unusual for the Los Feliz neighborhood in which I live but it was the markings on the poster that bewildered me. I took a simple photograph of this poster located down the street from my house. The markings and the location of the photograph provided me with a story and some insight to the people that live around me as well as making me laugh, still today.
The photo was taken on a bright Sunday afternoon. The picture with me (cut out) standing to the right of the electricity box on the sidewalk. It is to this power box that the Obama poster has been plastered. The poster is one designed by the famous LA street artist Shepard Fairey. In this poster design half of Obam's face is red and the other light blue. Underneath the bust of Obama is the in capital letters is the word “H O P E.”
Also in the photo underneath the poster of Obama is a smaller poster. This is a poster of a light turquoise “O.” The poster represents the band The Germs which was an early Los Angeles punk rock band. Because the sun is shinning so brightly in the photo the colors are bursting on the poster.
A most striking aspect the photograph is the scratches of black and white on the letter “H.” This is the reason the photo was taken. From the top left of the “H” to the bottom right corner a black line hard been drawn on the poster. This black line creates the letter “N” which in turn spells out “N O P E.” However there is one more discrepancy. Apparently someone had made an attempt to scratch off the markings to the letter “H.”
There is a story here that tells about the person who plastered the poster there. The neighborhood is definitely predominantly in support of Obama for president. There are no McCain posters anywhere. At first seeing the “O” underneath of the Obama poster I automatically assumed that was another piece of propaganda for the Obama campaign. My wife informed me that this was a symbol of the punk band The Germs. I do believe that the person who posted the smaller “O” poster, put it there as another greater symbol of Obama as well as showing their support for the reunion of the band The Germs.
It is incredible that someone had enough courage to approach that poster, which sell for hundreds on ebay by the way, and create a sly visual joke. Not exactly the most mature thing to do but to the vandal's credit they did not paint a short cropped mustache on Obama. Now there exist this unseen political battle in the neighborhood.
When I took the photo the black markings on the letter “H” had been altered and look they do in the current photo. Someone had decided to twist the famous Obama poster and it's word around, in what appears to be a humorous statement. The rebuttal to the black markings on the poster shows that the person who made the second markings was not in possession of a sense of humor. This person must have taken the marking as an offense to them and to Obama, whom they very clearly support. So much like a child tagging his opponent back, the offended Obama supporter attempted as best as they could to erase the damage that was done to the poster.
Now if anyone other me were to take the time to look at this picture or even the real poster on the street, they would notice all these things. They would see the poster in three different periods all at once. First, one easily recall the imagine of the poster with no markings at all because more than likely they just saw another one down the street. Second the black markings are still visible yet they no longer serve their purpose of turning the “H” into a “N.” No instead the scratched out portion leaves some black markings but clearly attempts to return the letter to its original shape. Why would they care so much about a poster. Democracy is important. Voting is important. Posters are not and neither are politicians. You would think the only people with time to scratch and re-scratch the post were taggers. However the poster was scratched not painted. These were ordinary citizens who did this. The first perhaps disapproving but definitely mocking the image of Obama. The second clearly offended and trying to restore the poster to its original message. All there, right on a street corner in my neighborhood and now I now more about the people the live around me.
