Charles Caleb Colton summed it up best when he quoted that Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let’s face it, the Romans did it, the Japanese did it, and it will be done for the rest of eternity, for as long as we have people on this earth. However; as a San Diego Photographer, I never thought that anyone would ever do it to me.
It all started back in October of 2013. I was commissioned by the infamous, Ricardo Breceda to shoot his “Borrego Dragon”, using HDR Photography. He liked one of my pictures that was already in the gallery, but wanted that one and another one as well. I wanted to do something special for him and I wanted it big, as in 20 inches by 30 inches. The other piece he wanted was made up of 5 separate shots of the Borrego Dragon, from head to tail and would be framed in five separate pictures. I made the modifications to the first piece, took it to the printers and drove out to the desert to work on the commission piece. It was a nice summer day and 110 degrees in the desert that day, but that’s the price you pay as an artist.
Fast forward to last weekend, I needed to visit the Old Julian Photography Gallery and picked up some items. I had not been there, in quite awhile and I knew they made some changes and brought in some new talent as well. I was taking a look at some of the other artists works, when low and behold I thought I was experiencing Déjà vu. Underneath a table, I observed a print of the Borrego Dragon that was very similar to mine, almost to a T. I won’t mention any names, but we will call him Allen. I remember Allen asking me, where this sculpture was, about four months prior. He shot it from the exact angle, in HDR, and even changed the color of the Dragons eye, like I did. I also discovered that he was trying to bring it into the gallery to sell.
Now, I know I am supposed to be flattered that someone is so impressed with my work that they would try to duplicate my work. Don’t get me wrong, I am flattered. The part that I have a hard time swallowing is someone doing that and then trying to sell their art, as an original, in the same location as mine. You don’t copy the Mona Lisa, tweak it a little, and then try and sell it as yours, so why would you do it and in the same gallery to boot? For myself, I would be thoroughly embarrassed that my picture even closely resembled someone else’s, let alone try and pass it off. I would like to hear your thoughts on how you would feel?
Leave a Reply