Photography and Plagiarism - A Personal Story

[LabRat]

Well, if I were to "plagiarize" an image, I would not be putting my name on it, rather something like AA or EW, to make big bucks off of it!!!

Steve K

[Drew Wiley]

I thought the Merced River flowed backwards (uphill) so that you can't get to it without paying the Park entrance fee.

[jnantz]

( wagging his finger at me ) I TAKE PHOTOS LIKE THIS, DON'T YOU EVER!

and i never did.
merg, plenty of peepol find tripod holes there's nothing wrong with that
j

[BrianShaw]

Putting your tripod in the same holes as others doesn't necessarily equate to plagiarism. The lighting might be completely different, the season,etc; and anyone truly skilled is going to come up with their own interpretation of the scene anyway. It's those who don't have that kind of self-confidence that try to copycat.

[Vaughn]

I thought the Merced River flowed backwards (uphill) so that you can't get to it without paying the Park entrance fee.

That's one of the benefits of being represented by the AA Gallery -- when I visit the Park I can claim I am there on business and don't have to pay the entrance fee. Not such a big deal anymore now that I have my Geezer Pass.

[Vaughn]

... One was stair post at the imperial palace in Kyoto that had been taken by Brett Weston...

Dang missed that while I was there -- but I only have a couple 120 film cameras, so it goes.

[Drew Wiley]

I thought you already knew that the water of the Merced flows uphill, Vaughn. Isn't Mystery Spot down in the Santa Cruz redwoods part of your Bigfoot haunts? Water flows uphill there too, at least as an illusion. But as a species of wildlife, you never did have to pay to be in Yosemite Park boundaries; and being a geezer, I get in free. Ferdinand up at the Tioga Pass entrance would often let me through free for hauling surplus piles of Don't Feed the Bears pamphlets etc to the south entrance. Nobody has the courage to feed a Sasquatch, so these brochures never mention that particular risk. I've always wondered why tourists run screaming out of certain carbon print AA gallery openers down in the Valley. Even bears run. Must be a high ceiling in there to accommodate that specific wildlife. I mainly photographed the lower reaches of the Merced, the Mother Lode hill country, but was way up on the Lyell Fork three summers ago. One of my nephews lives near the lower Merced. My place was on the San Joaquin canyon further south. No bigfoot species there except one. But that's a different story. It's amazing how fast some backwoods campers can climb a tree when confronted with a Hollywood-quality King Kong suit eleven feet tall.

[Vaughn]

No, its Confusion Hill, along the Eel River just south of the Humboldt County border.

[Joe O'Hara]

Great story, Merg.

Photographing in Yosemite over the years, it is difficult not to accidently use the same tripod holes as Adams, Sexton, et al. I found this one of mine in one of Sexton's books, Listen to the Trees, plate No.46.

The quality of light is similar, his image is a vertical. His is a silver gelatin print from a 4x5 (I've never seen the actual print) and mine is an 8x10 platinum/palladium print. Personally I like mine better, but I'm a bit biased.

His image is dated 3/1991, and I made mine in 2005 (his book was published in 1994). I got the book in 2010 or so.

This scene can be easily seen from the road just as one enters through the the entrance station on Hwy 140 and passes through the rock arch. Adams probably had a negative of the scene, but never printed it, LOL!

I would have photographed that too!

Not saying I would have printed it, though...

[Joe O'Hara]

I've done similar things, i.e., inadvertently photographing the same scene in almost the same way as one of the greats before me had (though not at age 10...). If I discover that my version is too close to a well-known earlier one I'll retire the image, but sometimes I think my image is different enough to warrant exhibiting.

Case in point:

Ansel Adams - Zabriskie Point, made in 1942:
Attachment 193144

... and my "Furrows" made in 1998 (below; I can't seem to get it in line here for some reason):


Mine is horizontal vs. vertical and arranged differently. I had never seen the Adams' image when I made this (somewhat surprisingly), only discovering it some years later. I'm not sure that would have prevented me from making the image, however. It's difficult to work popular areas and, if not duplicate, then not address the same subjects and features as photographers and artists who have gone before. I see no harm in that. IM-HO, originality is overrated.

Best,

Doremus

Honestly speaking, I prefer yours very much.

Thanks for not "retiring" it.