These are also for an assignment. For this one, we had to photograph comparable people we liked - we had to imitate work we liked. I chose Sally Mann. In my opinion, imitation, even in done for flattery is worthless. The action is cheap and discredits the person whose work becomes unoriginal because of it. I tried to, as we were instructed to do, make images exactly like Sally Mann's and as a result I have pretty much nothing. She is an inspiration, but copying her for an assignment ruined the shoot. I don't have many instances with Ava and she's five so she looses interest quickly. By the time I took the unsuccessful Sally Mann attempts, I had lost her. I tried to hard to do something I couldn't do, leaving me with nothing. Mann photographed her own children - that gave her so many advantages. I do not mean general advantages, rather she has an advantage over us childless folk to take images such as hers. The relationship she had with her kids is obviously necessary to make images like her. In trying to figure out my own style, my own 'voice' as they say, I figure you must look at work and pull from it, but not copy it - I can't stand fake anything and I feel like this assignment made fake photos. I hate copying others, I hate being copied. Originality is essential to life, especially in art. Needless to say, I am not proud of these images. I like one out of all the photo I took - the first one. I might turn in some old images of Ava with it....
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