“It is better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville

 

I rarely do this and I wish I didn’t have to address this subject; but the time has come when I feel that this topic needs to be discussed.

The topic that I want to address today is “originality”.  Let me give you an example. If I was to show you this painting below, and you knew just a small bit of art knowledge, you would be able to tell me who painted this piece.

This is a painting by the famous Picasso.  If I wanted to get crazy on you, we would sit here and discuss the meaning behind this painting, and what Picasso must have been thinking when he painted this masterpiece; but we’ll save that for a rainy day. Or not.

Now let me show you another piece.

This is a painting by Monet.  Beautiful, right?

I think we would all agree that both of these artists are very talented.  Extremely talented.  I think we would also agree that both of these paintings are very different from each other, also.  Now think if Picasso had seen all the interest in Monet’s work and decided to paint just like Monet…  Do you think Picasso would have been nearly as famous as he was/is?  Absolutely not.  Both of these artists are famous because they were original.

Now allow me to step onto my soap box for a moment…  I have a new pet peeve.  It absolutely drives me cuh-razy when other photographer’s copy my work.  I don’t want that to sound snooty, because it is not intended to be taken that way.  I understand that imitation is the best form of flattery; but when I work so hard to create beautiful, original pieces of art, if you will, for my clients and then it is copied by another photographer…  It is just completely unnerving to me.  I have seen many photographer’s photos where I thought “Oh I love that barn” or “Oh I love that field”.  But for the sake of being original and letting them be original, I am not going to copy them…  That is their spot and they are entitled to their originality in shooting there.  If I have clients that say, “Oh,I saw so and so photographers pics and I want mine just like them!”  I will take that “feel” and go to another spot; but I will not take them to the exact same spot and create the exact same picture… That’s not right, and I will simply not do that!

I was very annoyed and frazzled this morning and was afraid I was taking things out of context, so I got onto my professional photographer message board that I am a part of and voiced my concern.  I had a very quick response from about 25 photographers around the world…  It was nearly unanimous that it is not right to blatantly copy another photographer’s work! 

Be a Picasso.  Be original.  There’s only one you.  Create your own footsteps…  Don’t walk in someone else’s.