Photograph of Torres del Paine in Patagonia by Peter Eastway. It's certainly not an original location, but the treatment makes it original in terms of entering a competition.
It’s hard if not impossible to take a photograph today without being influenced or inspired by another photograph or photographer. There are simply so many people with cameras roaming the Earth that no matter how original we try to be, chances are someone has been there before us.
Fortunately, with a little creativity we can add our own interpretation – and this probably makes it okay!
For instance, many people have photographed Monument Valley with its three mesas, the amazing Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland or the lakes in front of Torres del Paine in Patagonia. You’re not copying another photographer’s work by going to these locations and exploring them yourself – looking for new angles, different lighting conditions, changeable weather.
However, if you’ve seen an existing photograph and your aim is to take one just like it, this can be a problem. Copying an existing photograph by looking for the same angle, using the same lens and even the same post-production is called plagiarism. Whether it breaks copyright laws is just a technicality: ethically it’s the wrong thing to do – with perhaps one exception.
Throughout the history of art, artists and photographers have trained themselves by copying the work of the masters. There’s nothing wrong with copying a photo to educate yourself, but you shouldn’t display or share it publicly as though it were your own creation or idea.
They say plagiarism is when you copy the work of one photographer, inspiration is when you copy the work of hundreds! We are all inspired by other photographers and their photographs, the challenge is to create something that is our own.
We’ve had situations in the past when entrants have not fully understood what is and isn’t acceptable in photography competitions. Even if the judges don’t pick a similarity, social media has thousands of eyes and invariably someone will tell us! It can be an embarrassing position to be in, so we hope this simplified explanation makes it clear!
Make Sure Your Entries Are Original
