Copying?

[drew2143]

Hey guys, I just finished a project for school where I used scale model figures in different scenes. I was just looking at photoeye and I found Lori Nix's work. If you're not familiar with her work, she creates different scenes with scale model objects. Although, I didn't see her project until mine was halfway done, I can't stop feeling like I copied her. There aren't really any similarities between our projects other than the scale model objects. However, I feel like I copied her idea. How do you guys feel about copying someone elses work in the photography world.
thanks

[SmartWombat]

Copying their work, as in attempting to reproduce their images, only as a learning exercise.
Copying their style, their look, their feel, is sometimes an art/photography course exercise.

Since you came up with the idea on your own, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

When does one artist's idea become a trend, a movement, or even an -ism?
Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism
Would you say the artists worried about copying each other ?

[mtbbrian]

Pablo Picaso once said,
"Good artists copy; great artists steal."
So as SW said, don't loose any sleep over it.
Brian

[Didache]

Someone else said "There's nothing wrong with warming yourself at another man's fire when you're cold". There is a difference between being inspired by someone and outright plagiarism - you are on the right side of it from what you've said.

Cheers
Mike

[Asylum Steve]

How do you guys feel about copying someone elses work in the photography world...

Well, you're talking about three seperate things. Plagiarism is ripping off someone else's idea and trying to pass it off as your own. It's normally considered a bad thing, and though sometimes it's possible to do it legally, usually it will only get you so far.

Being influenced by someone else's ideas or style is a very normal and healthy part of the artistic process. Trends tend to come and go in waves or cycles, and even if a group of artists start something "new" that completely bucks what's current, it's usually influenced by something very similar from years ago.

New Wave music (early 1980s) comes to mind. Even though the garage and punk sounds were a direct antithesis to the heavy corporate and symphonic rock that came right before it, much of the music, while seemingly fresh and new, was directly copying the British Invasion music of fifteen years earlier.

It's rediscovery, and rediscovery is innovation...

Your case is the third thing. Two artists working similar concepts or ideas without being aware of the other. That happens so often, it's hardly worth mentioning.

IMO, the only element that allows true innovation, as in something completely new, is technology...

[almo]

...Plagiarism is ripping off someone else's idea and trying to pass it off as your own. It's normally considered a bad thing, and though sometimes it's possible to do it legally, usually it will only get you so far.

Vanilla Ice

Being influenced by someone else's ideas or style is a very normal and healthy part of the artistic process. Trends tend to come and go in waves or cycles, and even if a group of artists start something "new" that completely bucks what's current, it's usually influenced by something very similar from years ago.

Bob Dylan

Your case is the third thing. Two artists working similar concepts or ideas without being aware of the other. That happens so often, it's hardly worth mentioning.

Milli Vanilli


I'm sorry, the last one just came to me after seeing, "it's hardly worth mentioning...

[megan]

"Vanilla Ice"
While the infamous "Ice Ice Baby" "sampled," or, ripped off "Under Pressure," where does that put earlier sampling of riffs, such as Afrika Bambaataa using Kraftwerk in "Planet Rock?"

Just being a pain. Sorry

:blush2:

[Asylum Steve]

Just being a pain. Sorry...

Au contraire. This points out a huge gray area that begs for discussion.

When you consider that not to terribly long ago, George Harrison lost a copyright infringment suit because his song My Sweet Lord was ruled to be too similar to the Chiffons' hit, He's So Fine.

No sampling, different song with different lyrics (and a song writing pedigree like Harrison's), just a simliar melody. The ruling IMO seems absurd by today's standards.

Personally, I don't like the sampling of older hits into new material, but I understand the evolution of music. And with the prominent role that DJ's play in clubs and musical events and videos, I guess it's was only natural that mixing led to sampling...

[almo]

"Vanilla Ice"
While the infamous "Ice Ice Baby" "sampled," or, ripped off "Under Pressure," where does that put earlier sampling of riffs, such as Afrika Bambaataa using Kraftwerk in "Planet Rock?"

Just being a pain. Sorry

:blush2:

I could have sited hundreds of examples, I just thought V. Ice was funny...

[livin4lax09]

I felt like brining this back up because it is something that I think passes through everyone's mind when they are trying to create art or photos. Nothing is really original in this day and age, and if it is, less than .001 percent of the stuff that is being created is that. Whether you know it or not, you are hitting upon the same concept other people are doing. Take for example, the project I am working on now. I am doing a series of artistic nude panoramas. i have been surfing the net and just looking at other photos that I like the lighting in/poses, whatever. I then look at them for a while and try to formulate what I want to do. Sometimes they end up being very similar because what I wanted to do is about the same as what I am looking at. As long as you do it yourself, there's nothing wrong with it.

One of my favorite quotes...

Good artists borrow. Great artists steal. -Picasso

You have to derive your ideas somewhere. Even if it comes straight out of your own imagination, it's probably influenced by something you have seen before.

take a look at my flickr page, specifically my "study of body movement." the orange shot? Pan's labyrinth? Taken almost exactly from it, but I put my little twist on it. Now, the rest of the series... the ideas from those came almost all out of my own mind, but where would I have been if I hadn't copied that first idea? I probably wouldn't have gone anywhere because I would have had no base for the series.

Copying isn't bad if you want to give a series your own personal touch. of course, I would always credit the original idea when talking about your work, but dont be afraid to not do something just because its been done before. Two people with the exact same ideas or concepts can come up with completely different finished products.