It has all been done before

It has all been done before. Is there anything that hasn’t been photographed? I’d say we would be hard pressed to find anything. Are we truly innovative in our current work, maybe but maybe not. I believe we are influenced by work we have seen in the past on work we create for today and the future. Is that a bad thing? No, not necessarily. We can stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. One could argue that Michelangelo, who died over 300 years before the Wright brothers first flew an airplane, was one of the first to conceive of the idea of an airplane. Did the Wright brothers build upon the work of those who had preceded them?

Are we really copying the work of others? Maybe. Does it really matter? Most likely it does not matter. We will most likely apply a bit of ourselves into the new work. If I’m not attempting to produce counterfeit work that I proclaim was made by others and attempting to profit by forging the work of someone else is it wrong? Do we really believe we are coming up with a totally new concept or are we building upon the work of those who came before us? I get inspiration from seeing art and often times I may incorporate more than one piece of work I’ve seen into my piece is it truly an original never been done before by anyone at any time since the beginning of art? I’m not so sure. To me, don’t worry about it, just create.