Not a new problem, but I guess most photographers have to deal with the question at some point. Unlike the posters making comments such as "Who is Michael Kenna? " - omg, do your homework!, the statement "we need to stop with the 'I was here first'" mentality caught my eye. I think any kind of art is derived from things/people that came before, but I think that very few of those people would say "I did this first." It's more like, this person popularized this style, so is most commonly associated with it. I did a long exposure workshop a few years ago, and my instructor who does some interesting work, told us that galleries will no longer accept images in the "Kenna" style because it is just so overdone. We also learned of some photographers who deliberately do not look at other photographer's work specifically because they don't want to be influenced by anyone else (a kind of conceit I think). There are a lot of photographers that I admire (especially Kenna), but I have no interest in trying to imitate him, and even if I did, it still wouldn't look the same (I know, I've tried). I'm more interested in making photos that are interesting to me.
