Can photographers be plagiarists?

[mjs1973]

An interesting piece on slate.com.

http://www.slate.com/id/2159172/nav/tap1/

This reminds me of the Ansel Adams' Autumn Moon: the High Sierra From Glacier Point photo that was in the news a year ago. Astronomers figured out the day when the moon would be in the exact same position it was in when Adams made his famous image. Photographers from all over came out to try to duplicate the photo.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...dams_moon.html

My biggest inspiration for taking photos comes from looking at other peoples work. Does that make me a plagiarist?

[Old Timer]

I really think the first photographer was full of beans. The photos are similar but still very different. If the image had been a studio shot were all the detail were the same than maybe plagiarism is a fair term but for a piece of architecture. It's like saying AA took a picture of half Dome no one else is allowed to do that again. Come on get real.

[Xia_Ke]

That is an excellent article Michael. Thanks for sharing The question is, where do you draw the line? I mean with the first photographers fine, I suppose you could write it off. However, what about the Eggleston and Patterson photos? That's pretty sketchy. PErsonally, I think I would be a little upset if I was either of those original photographers.

[freygr]

If you went out and took a photo from the exact same place with the exact same lighting and it was identical to a copyrighted photo and you did publish it. Technically the copyright owner could sue you and win....... and at 10 grand a copy it's not peanuts. The nice thing is that it's very unlikely to happen.