Are good intentions good enough?
Posted on: April 5, 20106 Comments |
emulate: to strive to equal or excel
imitate: to produce a copy of : reproduce
tribute: something given or contributed voluntarily as due or deserved; especially : a gift or service showing respect, gratitude, or affection
Richard Wright Tribute
When does emulation, imitation, and maybe even a tribute go into the realm of outright theft? At times we all get inspired by something someone else does. Be it a gesture, a novel, or a piece of art they create. Inspirationally motivated art is natural. Most people have a vast internal spring of creativity which they draw from. But, from time to time — be it from temporarily drying up, not being able to access it, or just plain laziness, that internal spring doesn’t provide us with much. That’s when we look outside of ourselves to other sources. We see something that blows us away and leaves us in awe. It might spark something inside and our internal creativity spring starts flowing again. Maybe it even flows into an imitation piece of what you saw. It so inspired you that you just have to copy it. Let’s say you copy it to the point that your piece looks almost identical to the one that inspired you. Side by side it would be really hard for someone to say who did which one and you don’t say anything. You don’t give credit to the original for your inspiration. You just allow people to think how brilliant you are. They are in awe of you and your life starts down a new fabulous path full of accolades and wealth. Is this right? I’m not going to get into the legal aspects of copyright infringement or intellectual property laws. I just want ask you the reader to think about it. How would you feel if you were the author of that original inspiration? Would you do anything in the case above? Would you say anything? What if you never found out? Now think about this for a minute……
Inspired from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody viedo
The main question I ask myself when I emulate, imitate or do a tribute is “What are my intentions” for this piece. I think if your intentions are a true emulation, imitation, or tribute and they are clearly stated that way, then you are good to go. By all means emulate, imitate and do tributes to those that inspire you. Let them know how much they push you to grow but DON’T pass something off as yours when it is clearly not. We’ve all heard that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I would agree, to a point, but I think imitation with direct line of sight to original is even better. I mean it’s hard to come up with truly new concepts in this day and age. Well, it is and it isn’t. The ever-updating development of software, which allows for the expression of just about any idea you can have, certainly helps. But the basic concepts of standing on a train track, silhouetting yourself inside a doorway, snapping selfies in the mirror… etc so on and so forth… these basic ideas are not new. Rather, it’s how you shoot and process them that makes them yours. As Brian suggested in his great article on style, you develop your own style as you go. You may incorporate a bit here and a bit there from other people, but as you go along sooner or later I think you come into your own. You come to know what works or doesn’t work for your tastes. Don’t let theft work for you. If you develop a style akin to someone else but it it uniquely yours, wonderful. We are all different people. Use your own voice and creative spring to express your creativity. Don’t use someone else’s creativity and pass it off as yours. Don’t cheat them or yourself.
Final Cut Tribute
Back to the original case where someone created something derivative and gets everything their heart desires handed to them because of that one piece or series of pieces they did based on your work. How would you feel? Would it matter if they gave you credit for being their inspiration? What if everyone knew you inspired them, but still the other person is the one reaping the rewards. Does it make a difference if they gave credit where credit is due? Does it matter if they are profiting from it? What if it was just a tribute on Flickr or Snapfish? Does that change your mind at all? What are the criteria for you personally when it comes to how far someone can go with your idea? Was it their intention to get famous and make $$$ out the wazoo or was it some freak circumstance that someone saw it and promoted them? Do their intentions matter? Do you know how to stop someone from blatantly using your ideas? Have you asked yourself these questions before? You should. If you do this long enough, chances are you will run into this. Someone somewhere will either knowingly or possibly unknowingly use an idea that was first born in your own mind. How will you react to it?
Tribute to Jaime Fernandez
I imagine it isn’t always cut and dry. Circumstances and intentions all matter. I mean, for me, getting a tribute or having someone emulate something I do out of respect or just playing around is flattering and the results are usually pretty cool. Just remember we all draw inspiration from internal sources and external. If you do emulate, imitate, or tribute something just leave the proper acknowledgments. It’s common courtesy and could lead to a whole new world of collaboration. You never know, your emulation today could be someone else’s tribute tomorrow.
What about using someone else’s textures to create your own work? We’ve all seen it before ‘feel free to use this free texture in your own work’. They also might ask that you link back to them or some even ask that you post the image you made. Now without getting into the legal aspect of it, you do owe it to that person at the very least to let them know how you used their image. Whether through a link back to the original image, a comment notation to that effect or just a simple email. It is their original work after all. Give credit where credit is due. If you go on to sell your final image then you could be setting yourself up for a whole legal mess if you didn’t notify the original creator. Everyone is different some people don’t care how you use it, whether personal or commercial use, other people care deeply. So before you use anyone else’s work, as common courtesy once again, just ask. If it’s advertised as a free texture, then it would still behoove you to do a little research and see what exactly they mean by that. A little common courtesy can go a long way.
Here are some link to sites about licenses and copyright information. This list is by no means extensive and your intentions for your own work may differ from what you find here. I encourage you to do your homework and find our what your rights and responsibilities are.
Types of creative common licenses
American Society of Media Photographers copyright information and workshop
Copyrights and other rights in photography
*all photos in the post are tributes or were inspired from outside sources.
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April 6th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I have a theory on why everyone is so quiet today. I think many of us are made uncomfortable by this topic, as it touches on the borders of our own insecurities. We wonder, am I really original/creative/legitimate in my artistic expression? Or am I just an imitator/imposter, etc?
I don’t think there’s real reason to be scared, though. There is absolutely a line between derivative vitality and lemming-like hackery. If your honest with yourself, you can figure out which side you’re on.
As Doug points out — intentions mean a lot. attribution goes a long way (and in many instances, may be legally required).
If anyone has some “inspired by” photos they’d like to share in the comments — I know I’d like to see links & hear about how you view the relationship between your piece and its source.
April 6th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Nicole, I think you are right about this topic. It does touch on insecurities. I think that Doug is right when he says that the basic concepts of most ideas have been done before. What an artist brings to any image is their own point of view. Most of us probably don’t know what our point of view is because we are still developing it. I think that’s part of what leads to a tendency to emulate too literally instead of having the work of someone else inspire a unique image that can be seen as wholly belonging to the artist. Am I making any sense?
This is a great topic to bring up. I chat about this often with some of my other photographer friends and I think it is something that should be talked about.
This is an interesting article about a real-world situation that happened earlier this year about a situation where one artist calls it plagiarism and another calls it “aesthetically similar”. I wonder what others think?
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/matter+perspective+Canadian+Photo+artist+accused+plagiarism/2663547/story.html
April 6th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Im not uncomfortable with the topic, but I have been busy!
It is a touchy one, and probably because everyone here has breached our own code of ethics involving this, whether we knew it at the time or not.
I think that intentions do mean a great deal as well. I take a lot of inspiration and ideas from my contacts on flickr – a piece of this photo, a piece of that theme, a touch of his color, a dab of her style. Does that make it theft? No, I don’t think so. Every artist, in any medium, takes cues from other artists, and thats how popular styles and trends develop, flourish, and eventually fall out of favor.
What I find unfortunate is how impossible it is to legislate the lines on this matter. “Fair use”, imitation, mockery, and even plain theft are no clearly defined instances that can be categorized and enforced.
I have an example of an idea for a photo that I attempted to emulate.
This is my photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c-towner/4475618010/
This is the photo that inspired me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesgalpin/3910131379/in/pool-olympus_e-system_information
Personally, I feel that I did not approach the wonder that the original created, but I was very happy with my photo! Did I use the idea? Yes. Do I feel like I stole anything? No. I set up the shot and created it on my own in my own home, he did the same thing with his photo. Was his more creative? I think so, if he came up with the idea on his own, which he probably did. However, I think that emulating shots and creating them on our own is a different way that we can grow as artists and hone our skills in this craft – by attempting to scale the same mountains our predecessors did.
April 7th, 2010 at 1:38 am
In my time on Flickr I have done a lot of copycat shots, and (very few) derivative photos, but all the copies were not only deliberate, but always attributed and commented in the original photo. I have spent literally hours trawling flickr for the original, so I could post a copied link in the original. Its just common decency…
For me as a casual photographer the issue was never serious, I think that line is crossed when there is either ego or money involved (usually both).
When it comes to landscapes (and other public access subjects), I don’t believe there is any intellectual property involved – anyone who stands at the same spot with similar settings will get a similar shot, there is no flag you can stake into the ground that reserves that spot as yours.
I think the law and art, should be kept apart in the same way that science, religion and politics shouldn’t be mixed.
April 7th, 2010 at 10:31 am
@Christine: Great article.
This has been and will always be a topic of debate. In today’s world everyone has a camera. They are built into phones and so small you can stick a 10MP camera into your shirt pocket. There are probably thousands of pictures that look exactly the same. The real problem is when photography is intentionally copied and someone makes money off it. The hard part is proving it.
I see pictures and think, “I’ve got to try that!” I always have “theft” in the back of my mind though. I would never intentionally set out to make an exact copy of an image, but I have paid tribute ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwag/3267758173/ ) to other photographers and am constantly inspired by them.
While taking this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwag/4288234408/
I was thinking about this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19hallam/4268370898/
A totally different situation, I just happened to come up on these kids. While I don’t think it’s imitation, emulation, or a tribute it I was most certainly inspired. Inspiration is an important part in any art.
So be careful kids… you never know when your version of Sze Tsung Leong will come after you! AHHHHH!
April 7th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Nice article and I have to say that I am always inspired by images I see everywhere. I am not the one to go out and think I can re-create the same exact shot someone else has done, however, I will try and re-create the mood/feeling I got from an image.
For example, I love low down wide angle shots (a technique that is not new in any way). I first fell in love with these types of shots when I saw a flickr friend of mine’s images who is really good at taking those types of shots. I know this technique has been around for ages…but it was my flickr friend’s shots that inspired me to want to try that technique.
I have a few model shoots coming up and I asked the girls to look for photos they liked and to tell me why they liked them. My reason for this was to see what emotions/moods they wanted to try and achieve. I plan to study the images they send me to see if I can get ideas for lighting and angles, but by no means are we going to try and re-make the exact image! That’d be impossible! Is this stealing? Maybe the images we look at were inspired by other images and those inspired by others and on and on.
Some of my work has been used for inspiration. What I loved was seeing how the other person used what they liked from my work and made their own unique image. I was flattered when they told me I had inspired them.
My Concrete Lifelines series is obviously inspired by Catherine Opie’s series of freeway shots she took back in 1994. I had never heard of her nor had I ever seen her freeway work until one of my contacts told me that I was copying her work. I felt defensive because I thought I was just taking shots from my car of the freeways that I loved seeing. Just because my images happened to also be like a famous photographer’s images didn’t mean I was stealing. She and I are not the only souls who like taking images of freeways. So I went to look at her work and FELL IN LOVE WITH IT! I then looked at her portrait work (which was a little similar to mine as well) and loved it so much, I wrote to her and bought two of her books. I mentioned in my set description that my later freeway shots were definitely inspired by her and I told her as much in the email I wrote. I have never heard back from her. I hope she understands I wasn’t copying her…my shots are different in that they were taken from behind the wheel and edited in many different ways. Some of hers were done on a tripod with a wide angle and processed in sepia.
My final thoughts are that if you like someone’s work, let them know how much you like it and that you’d love to get some tips on how they achieved it so you can make an image of your own using their advice. Let them know how much they have inspired you and that will go a long way. I love to hear that I’ve inspired people.
Thanks for a great article!