This weekend’s Utata project was “Homage.” As part of the project, we were to pick a famous photographer (or photograph) and re-create it.
This project presented interesting challenges for me. For one thing, I seldom “copy” the photographers I love. Most people, upon hearing my “favorited” photographers, say things like, “really? I would have never guessed that you like…” I’m just odd that way-I don’t really “copy” the famous photographers I like and, sometimes, I even copy photographers (or photographs) I don’t really like.
Some of the photographers who were copied for this project include:
Ansel Adams, William Eggleston, John Blakemore, Mathew Brady, Jann Arthus-Bertrand, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Martin Parr, Jock Sturgis, Sally Mann, Victor Skrebneski, Imogen Cunningham, Harry Callahan, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Martin Fuchs, David Hockney, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Jerry Uelsmann, Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, Joyce Tenneson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eddie Soloway, Irving Penn, Todd Hido, Karl Blossfeldt, Lee Friedlander, Eliot Porter, Richard Avedon, Gertrude Kasebier, Cindy Sherman, Paul Outerbridge, Anne Geddes, Simon Marsden, Minor White, Uta Barth, Julius Shulman, Werner Bischof, Robert Frank, Hiroshi Watanabe, Margaret Bourke-White, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Eugene Atget, Candida Hofer, Robert Doisneau, Joel Meyerowitz, Edward S. Curtis, William Wegman, Patrick Tosani, Craig Blacklock, Michael Kenna, Karl Blossfeldt, Simon Marsden, Paul Strand, James Turrel, Courtney Milne, Ruth Bernhard, Clarence Laughlin, Rudy Burckhardt, Aaron Siskind, John Sexton, Andre Kertesz, Emmet Gowin, Elliot Erwitt, Eve Arnold, and Michael Kahn.
A couple of take away thoughts are that, well, there’s a lot more to photography than one or two great photographers. Most folks, when pressed, would answer “Ansel Adams” if asked to name a famous photographer but seldom, if any at all, could name more than 5 or 10. (We copied quite a few, as you can see from the list.)
Also, some photographers (Cindy Sherman comes to mind) are really more like “photographer’s photographers.” They shoot things that other photographers want to copy but that aren’t necessarily, popular in and of themselves. Her film still series really inspired a lot of photographers and, I’d guess, most folks have never seen nor heard of it. Kind of like the same way, I guess, every singer-songwriter tries to be Bob Dylan but a lot of “civilians” really can’t stand the sound of his voice.
It was a fun project and I’m glad I got to partake. I’ll post a link here once it’s published.
Until next snap…
