Imitation and “the Masters”

Tucker’s Burial. Boulder County, Colorado, 2013

“Follow the masters! But why should one follow them? The only reason they are masters is that they didn’t follow anybody!  —Paul Gauguin

And Gauguin’s follow-up:

“In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are masters.”

I know one photographer who takes it as a personal insult whenever anyone should happen to say to her: “Why, that looks just like an Ansel Adams photograph!”

I think I’d agree. Your images should look like your images.

(Hopefully, you haven’t confused my photograph above with anything in King Ansel’s portfolio. If you did, well…maybe you need to recalibrate your artistic eyeball just a tad.)