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Menachem Kuchar Photographer |
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Capsicums or Peppers
Copying is said to be the highest form of flattery. But I think that copying the work of the masters is far more than flattery or stealing their ideas. I believe there is much to learn from them by viewing their work, understanding it and then emulating it, and yes, trying to improve it. Emphasis on trying. You may or may not succeed, but you will produce something new and refreshing, and sometimes better. Just remember we sit on the shoulders of those who came before us, so our view and vision is clearer and our techniques, hopefully?, have improved.
As I have tried in the past, copying the ideas behind Alfred Stieglitz's Equivalents, photographs of clouds, here I am working with Edward Weston's vision of Peppers. In 1930 his girl friend brought him a whole box of peppers and he spent a week photographing them, or as he called it, sculpting. His most famous is Pepper #30.