When I worked in Spain, I had a very intelligent boss. She was one of the first female engineers in Spain. She was put in charge of a company that was far away from her original professional field. That is why I suppose she applied Churchill’s old advice: “ when faced with the inevitable, you have to be enthusiastic”, and she set out to learn by observing other people. She was the one who taught me a phrase that I repeat a lot and that people find very funny: “Copyright means copy well.” The meaning of the joke is lost a little in English, I suppose, but the wit, in Spanish, is clear (copyright, “copia bien”)
In photography, as in other things in life, you learn by copying people who are better than you. When you see a photograph by another colleague and there is something you like about it, you inevitably ask yourself: how was this done? What follows is obvious.
You start by copying other people and end up, with a bit of luck, integrating those processes into your own workflow. And, if your colleague is really, really good, you also have to give up, realize your own limitations, and accept that you will never reach that level of perfection.
This is the case for me, for example, with Richard Avedon, a photographer I admire and who I find to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Or with Bruce Weber.
Only reproducing someone else’s work is boring, but copying, trying to adapt someone else’s discoveries to your own style, is a form of homage that I, personally, don’t want to do without.
I’ve said it many times, and I try to put it into practice. I think it’s very important to praise the work of another colleague if you like it. Yesterday, for example, I stumbled across the work of Pierre, a French photographer (@hey_yo_pierre), on Instagram. I discovered him by chance because he saw one of my stories. I browsed through his work and thought it was fantastic, so I wrote to him to tell him so. I think it’s basic courtesy, not to mention an act of justice.
I also think that recognizing the work of others is a form of self-confidence. It shows that you’re not afraid that a colleague might be better than you, because you’re confident in the quality of your own photographs. And that´s nice as well.
