Class assignment:replicate a great artist's work.

celery · Mar 29, 2007

Here's the deal, I'm in a photography class (no I'm not a beginner, I just wanted to have access to a darkroom and get feedback for my work), anyway, we have two weeks to pick a photographer and try to make an exact copy of one of their pieces.

I'm doing my best to search for various artists, but I keep running into problems such as . . .

Location. I'm not rich, I can't get in a plane and fly to where ever I want.

People. Unless they're in shadow or masked in some way, I can't get that same person to come pose for me.

My current pick is Girl of Taos by Ansel Adams:
http://www.agallery.com/Pages/photographers/photos/aadams/AA004GirlofTaos1930.jpg

It's something that I could fairly easily re-create and the face is non-descript enough that I could get by without needing much of a resemblence.

Also Edward Weston:
http://www.artnet.com/artwork_images_613_114477_edward-weston.jpg
http://www.photogrowth.com/images/blog/2006/0429_Weston.jpg

I'm looking for suggestions. Many of you have much more photographic knowledge than I, and if you could recall either some artists or pieces of work that I could look at, I would appreciate it.

mortallis288 · Mar 29, 2007

pepper number 30 or some odd number to that effect would not be easy to create considering the awesome value but what about landscapes of ansel adams? http://www.masters-of-photography.com/ is an awesome site to look at famous peoples work

brighteyesphotos · Mar 29, 2007

I doubt they want an exact replica. I would assume your instructor is expecting you to re-create a photo using your local scene and people. Why not do a google search on street photography? There are A LOT of scenes that you could easily re-create within your city.

Iron Flatline · Mar 30, 2007

Have you looked at Robert Mapplethorpe's work?

Mike_E · Mar 30, 2007

"we have two weeks to pick a photographer and try to make an exact copy of one of their pieces"

You might want to pick an obscure Photographer because what you are being asked to do is copyright infringement. Is your instructor aware of this?

Efergoh · Mar 31, 2007

Mike_E said:
"we have two weeks to pick a photographer and try to make an exact copy of one of their pieces"

You might want to pick an obscure Photographer because what you are being asked to do is copyright infringement. Is your instructor aware of this?

How is mimicking someone's work a copyright infringement? If you were to take someone's work and sell it or display it without their permission or to call their images your own, that would be a copyright violation, but there is no violation if you are making your own image.

blackdoglab · Mar 31, 2007

Try Diane Arbus' work. Her images were fairly simply made but very compelling. Otherwise check out some of the artists on toycamera.com

RMThompson · Apr 2, 2007

I imagine the point is to show that even if you INTEND on taking a certain photograph, it would be pretty damn near impossible to take that photo again.

Mike_E · Apr 2, 2007

The infringement comes when you are trying to duplicate someone's work and "exact copy" fits that bill.

Of course you can take a photo of the same things that have been photographed before but to recreate someone's work w/o permission is where the lawyers can get involved.

Again, not that they would, but I thought it strange that an instructor of photography would be that sloppy with the copyright laws.

mike

terri · Apr 2, 2007

Mike_E said:
The infringement comes when you are trying to duplicate someone's work and "exact copy" fits that bill.

Of course you can take a photo of the same things that have been photographed before but to recreate someone's work w/o permission is where the lawyers can get involved.

Again, not that they would, but I thought it strange that an instructor of photography would be that sloppy with the copyright laws.

mike

It's a class assignment; it has been clearly outlined as such. Weston did not get a copyright on photographing twisted peppers. Technique, lighting and composition are the lessons here; not how to swipe someone's image and pass it off as your own. I'm sure the instructor is quite comfortable with the nature of this assignment.

Efergoh · Apr 2, 2007

What if I took a photo of a photo?

shorty6049 · Apr 2, 2007

that would be the same thing as putting the photo in a flatbed scanner

Funky · Apr 2, 2007

lol thats true

LaFoto · Apr 3, 2007

Sorry, celery, that I cannot be of help with regards to your original question, but as to taking a photo of your own that reflects the work of someone famous is no copyright infringement.
Every student of the fine arts starts out making one-to-one copies of some famous artist's canvasses, and that work is not even beginning to be an attempt at forgery, for example. It is what is called a (translated verbatim from the German expression for it, don't know if the word is used in this context in English, though) "afterperception".
To copy a master's work teaches you a lot.
You don't copy him and then go about saying: I've got a genuine Adams here. No one will believe you, anyway.

So, celery, have you settled on a photographer and taken an as close to his work photo as possible by now? (We once had that assignment out, too, i.e. to copy a famous photog of our choice, when the Weekly Assignments in our Photo Themes were still more widely accepted).