Influence and Similarity in Photography
On James Danziger’s blog “The Year in Pictures” comes this discussion of photographic inspiration, emulation or outright copying…You decide. The discussion centers around Paul Fusco’s Robert F. Kennedy funeral train photos.
The comments following the blog entry are especially interesting.
December 13, 2008 at 9:36 am
I agree that the comments following the blog post are provocative: one comment highlights a point that I agree with: that the selection of photographs that are printed (or posted, in this case) are chosen by an editorial team at the publication. Danziger’s discussion doesn’t clearly point this out, and there’s a slight tinged of criticism, in my opinion, coming from him aimed at the photographer herself, for taking photos so similar, when in fact, I quess that it’s only a couple of images curated out a much bigger portfolio of photographs she took during her covering the Obama campaign.
Also, a more important point: Danziger writes that “there is a slideshow of 14 different images taken mostly through the window of Obama’s bus, but also from a campaign train.”
If you go to look at the 14 photos posted at Time.com, there is in actuality only 6 of the 14 that resemble the “from the RFK train” point of view. The majority of them–eight–are from rallies or are different in nature, such as several shots looking “out from the front of the bus towards the road ahead” My 2cents.. thanks..