Inspiration or plagiarism? AP.
As an enthusiastic and passionate wildlife photographer it is often the case that if I am not actually outside taking images, or stuck at my computer processing them, there is a good chance that I will be looking at the work of other wildlife photographers, either on agency sites or on their own websites. As such I will occasionally come across an image that inspires me, either because it presents a new take on a familiar species or location, or simply because in some way, either through light, behavior, composition or all three, the image raises the bar of what has been produced before.
Both of these situations has arisen with me over the last couple of years and with a very familiar species, the grey seal, or more precisely, the Lincolshire grey seal Halichoerus grypus papparazzo! The first was an image by UK wildlife photographer Pete Cairns that had won an award in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards and showed a grey seal female among breaking waves. Now I am not saying that Pete was the first person to conceive of, and then take such an image, far from it but what is true is that that image inspired me, it made me sit up and it made me wish that I had taken it. More irritatingly it made me wish that I had even thought about taking it!
Having been to this location numerous times myself previously, and having spent a lot of time working with the seals fighting among the waves, this image was a timely reminder that focussing too much on one particular type of image, though somethimes essential, will frequently make you miss other oppotunities that are staring you in the face. When I next found myself on the Lincolnshire coast I set about rectifying ths situation and I spent some of my time working on this and similar images. So was I drawing inspiration from another photographer or simply plagiarisng ideas? I think it’s the former but others may disagree! Two of these images I have posted above and below and whilst both images are decent enough in their own right it would be dishonest of me to claim that the idea for them was mine when it wasn’t.
In addition, my good, if slightly rotund friend Danny Green, has recently emailed me some grey seal images which I believe, as portraits, are the best that I have seen of this particular subject (though it grieves me greatly to say so!). Does this mean that I will be scurrying off to Lincolnshire at the earliest opportunity to try and recreate these images? No but they too have inspired me. They have also, more importantly, reminded me that there is always, always something new to do with a subject, new ways of working, new light or subtle observations about the smaller details that photographers, myself included, can overlook so easily. After what feels like an eternity spent in front of the computer it is images like these that inspire me to get back out and work on some new images myself, who knows, I might even produce an image that inspires someone else!
A couple of youngsters play fighting!
I remember how British rock guitarists used to say how they had ‘been influenced’ by some black American blues artist when they had lifted solos note for note…I think it is de rigeur for nature photographers to look at other images (gulp sometimes..), note a take on something, store it up and use that to make their own.
After all, we are ultimately products of our genetic make-up and numerous influences – ‘originality’ is arguably meaningless in the context of human beings when even the most original science tends to be the rearrangement or combination of things in however inspired a fashion.
It is important to credit our influences – too many photographers pretend they invented the wheel. Your shots have certainly influenced me Andy – hey, I might get out in some snow and photograph ‘white things’ in that lovely minimalist way…rather than lilac crocus poking through.
As the inimitable Tom Lehrer once sang in his ode to the Russian Mathematician Nikolai Ivanovitch Lobachevsky…”Plagiarise, let no-one else’s work evade-yer-eyes….but please to call it research”
Some fifteen years ago I took a lot of photos of grey seals on Skomer, including animals playing in the surf. There were some that were basically the same, but not nearly so good (ie not sharp enough) as those you’ve used here. So when I have time to go back and try to capture those pictures again with a digital camera, will I be copying these pictures now that I’ve seen them? Do I now have to make sure that I do a different angle to show I’m trying not to copy them? Or were you and Pete trying to copy my unpublished images from years ago?
So what I’m really saying, is how do you define originality, plagiarism and inspiration when photographing relatively common subjects? Am I to ignore the opportunity to take a particular image, just because it has been done before?
Having been on several of Pete’s workshops, I can often recognise other people’s pictures that have been taken there too. They are the same or very similar to mine. Or are mine similar to theirs? That’s how Pete sets it up. But occasionally I’ve seen something, and wondered why everyone else is rushing off to photograph what Pete is leading them to, when there is a perfectly good picture to be had without going anywhere.
One could also be trying to reproduce the work of another photographer, perhaps someone better, to learn how to take a similar picture. I wouldn’t call that plagiarism.
[...] Andy’s recent post here about reworking other people’s ideas, you’d have to wonder if there is any point in [...]
What was it that Picasso said…
“Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.”
I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t been influenced by another photographer’s work on some level. What excites me is when someone can take an idea to an entirely new level that the ‘originator’ never conceived of. In the best of situations, those being emulated are then pushed to even higher creative dimensions. So much fun!