What if two photographers.....

An old boy on my course last year done something very similar to these photo's & I'm 99% certain he would never have seen these.

rakuhito said:

originality is overrated - it gives salesmen, historians and lawyers something to do. besides 99% of everything isn't original and the other 1% is totally derivative.

perhaps a more useful inquirey might be: "how can i do it better?"

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Or (imo) don't even worry about THAT -- don't worry about your work in relationship to others' AT ALL (unless you are commercial). Make the very best things you can. Define what "best" means for yourself. When you are making art that you can judge by your own criteria, comparisons will be unnecessary.

Which teapot do we want to dedicate for this tempest?

Again, there was this Photography 101 Assignment - "Go and photograph something never seen before."

At first, daunting. Then the thought: Expose a sheet of black and white paper to ambient light, and develop for maximum black. Title it, "Black Hole". Claim it is a photograph of a black hole - never seen before - and STILL not seen. Of course, there would be no background of stars ... but there was no mention of including something that had been seen before.

Then, after further thought ... the easiest assignment possible. Every time we photograph it is "something never seen before." We could, and always do, see something "similar" - but never precisely the same.

Even if we go to a well-worn site of a great photograph, and use the same tripod holes, the resulting image will be different - the cloud formations will not be the same -- nor will be the light - sun position for the seasonal date; diffraction in the atmosphere due to moisture and dust; changes in film emulsion/ processing, lens characteristics ... it is possible to think of an infinite number of factors.
I can't even duplicate one of my own photographs ... I'll revisit the scene - and my "vision" will have changed - the light is different ... etc,.

I would never worry about something someone has done before. Everything you do will have been influenced in some way, by previous images you have encountered ... but your work WILL be unique.

Work in good faith. Nothing else really matters.

I'd continue with the project. Whatever you come up with will be with your own mind and ideas. It doesn't matter if you deal with the same subject or the same technique. If we all worried about that, nothing would be accomlished. It's like when I assign a paper to my students. Although I assign one topic, I get a different response from each individual student.
When it DOES become a case of plagerism is when a photographer stands in the exact spot, with the exact lens, film, shot, and so forth doing a knowing imitation of the earlier photographers work. From the impression I have, you aren't in that kind of situation.

bjorke said:

Big effin' deal. Go on ahead.

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Ditto.

I am wondering if you were concerned over copyright or trade mark infridegments? I'll answer that too in advance - nope. Go ahead.

You may not be the first, but you may be 'better'. IMNSHO you're shooting film, so you're already there.

Regards, Art.

I've been in the reverse situation. A number of years ago when I was first an electronics student I produced these images http://www.tk.uklinux.net/pics.html and stuck them on the web. Six months later iD magazine (one of my favourite magazines at the time) reproduced very similar pictures. Looking at my server logs, I very much suspect the ideas came from me. I'm not claiming I was the first to do photos under UV light but in a way I was both annoyed and honoured that the images may have been inspired by mine and my model's work

Well believe it or not i have had the same problem with some of my work. Before i did photography i did theatricial and media make-up/wig making etc. Then i went on to do photography and i wanted to use my make-up in the scenes i created. My lecturer then took me to the library and got me out a book on Cindy Sherman. Her work was so similar to mine at the time. I was devastated!! The wierd thing about it is that I was also photographing dolls at the time as well-she does that too. She's taken all my ideas

I think that these days being orginal is few and far between. Although work has been done before-meanings may and probably will vary. Its still a new idea to you and orignal to you. I bet every photograph you've taken is similar to someones in the world. Photography is everywhere and there is always someone waiting to push the boundaries. Its working out how far those boundaries can be pushed. The photgoraphs that you are working on may be similar to this other photographer, I think you should use this and develop your ideas and photographs further.

I've gone off on one now. I could talk about this all night because I think this is a problem every photographer comes across- more than once.

Anyway - stay cool and keep photographing