Inspiration, Immitation, Theft

You're in for a ride on this one.

It’s been a rough week or two.

Last week I found out someone did an exhibition in Nagoya, Japan (A few prefectures away from Tokyo) in January, with my photos, without me knowing it. A fellow follower reported it to me as this person, a self-proclaimed “artist” (from hereon referred to as “the guy”), had an instagram post of it up saying that was his first exhibition.

I got that message during midnight when I was pretty much asleep. I wanted to find out more about what happened, but the guy had me blocked on IG so I virtually didn’t have any clues. I really couldn’t sleep after that.

The next day I asked people on twitter if anyone can give me any leads via screenshots, connections they have, etc. while I pieced up a few clues and contacted galleries that had affiliations with the guy. This tweet ended up going crazy, which is another story on its own. But thankfully that allowed me to gather enough evidence, have people on my side, and talk to the guy.

“The guy” told me and affiliated gallerists, his friends at home, that I was the reason the guy started taking photos in the first place. The guy apparently saw my Youtube video where I talked about my exhibition in Tokyo and wanted to someday do something like what I did there.

… Which he basically tried to copy by placing a rug, using the same photos, explaining my photos in the same way as I did in the video. There’s no way I can write out everything about this incident in words so anyways… More about this incident on my Youtube video. Thankfully I’m in communication with the guy, and he’s been apologetic (I think) and responsive.

After things seemed to settle, I also *unluckily* stumbled upon another… issue. I want to post a screenshot, but there’s no way of directly proving that this person stole from me so I will contain my frustration and not post a photo that can lead to things escalating.

To explain verbally, I found a person with a project name called “Fire and xx” (something that’s not ice but is an element and is suspiciously similar). The project page? pamphlet? was of an exhibition this person did, with a rather similar statement, identical locations, and similar way of pairing photos. Hell, even the page’s design like the background color was exactly the same. So I thought, wow that seems familiar. Now… to be clear what I went through with “the guy” was theft. No doubt about that. But let’s break this different, but equally frustrating case a bit more.

A lot of you may know, I have a project that I’ve been working on called “Fire and Ice”, which is based off of a poem written by Robert Frost (hey, now that’s inspiration right? well, I hope). I’m going to places with literal fire and ice, but conveying hopefully a larger message with it through the way I sequence and pair images. For that, I’ve been to Aso in eastern Japan, Hokkaido in the northernmost part of Japan, and in my hometown.

This photographer, whether by chance or what - I don’t know and there’s no way of telling- has a very, very similar project with similar image pairings, done in the EXACT same locations. Like, the exact same places. He’s been to these places and put out the project a good year or so after me. The way he explains the project is oddly familiar too. The subjects he are taking photos of, the composition, all seem oddly familiar too. Like photos of similar road posts, similar compositions of snow… And these are photos that even I questioned to myself after I took it, “who in their right mind would take a photo of this”.

And of course, these are pretty popular locations to photograph… but the exact same places? There’s no way of telling or even pressing charges against this person. Because hell, I’m a nobody, I don’t have a gallery on my side/ not represented by any org. I’m just a hippy photographer roaming the streets and putting out my ideas so people can hopefully enjoy them, and hopefully I can learn from this long journey too.

This lead me to question. Which is worse? There’s physical evidence of theft done by “the guy” in the first example. But he was basically a punk that wanted to show off to his buddies. He didn’t sell anything from what I know, he just wanted to do something that would boost his career as an artist.

The second guy… May have stole a whole concept (obviously, you can’t replicate quality, technique, or experience so he couldn’t copy everything. And I’m saying MAY have because there’s no way of telling). He’s been doing a round of galleries and self-publishing, getting exposure from camera brands, and more. I don’t think I’m jealous because I personally don’t enjoy his photos… But am I going insane and am I seeing things?

Idea theft? Direct inspiration? Subliminal inspiration? Or just pure, pure coincidence? There’s no way of knowing. But personally, the second one hit me in the feels more.

I’ve partaken in heavy inspiration for locations, ideas, compositions, camera gear, and more. Of course. But copying every single aspect… Is next level. And both these incidents in this newsletter seemed like a whole new level to me. There’s so much I want to talk about. How I feel, what I learned, the issues with photography in the digital era, art and social media…

But I’ll end here for today, and please let me know what your thoughts are. And let’s try not to harass people after reading this and be chill adults about it. Although I’m pretty pissed. lol.

More about the stolen exhibition saga on my next YT video.

Thanks for reading this rather violent newsletter, and peace and love to all of you that read this.