How do they sleep at night? This too shall pass. Your great work shines by its own light dear Ulysses, unlike poor imitators who merely fade away or get snuffed out. X
This is crazy! And unimaginable! There must be a sense of personal violation - almost like someone came into your house while you’re sleeping and take some of your personal stuff. Yuck! Is there ways to pattern/copyright your art/ideas and bring legal action when people steal them in Japan?
Hey Chantale, yeah crazy... and as you said, I feel like I just got robbed. I'm sure I can sue this person in particular that did the exhibition. But suing people in general isn't that common here in Japan, and often takes more time and money on the claimant's end especially for smaller cases like this.
I wonder what mental connections have to fire in someone's brain to go that far and not hit a red flag that says, "Hmm, MAYBE I shouldn't be doing this."
In regards to the first guy, it makes me think that the photographs or the path of "being a photographer" was never the focal point. To take a stab in the dark, he needs a hug. He might've latched onto the sense of accomplishment, support, and attention he saw from your exhibition experience and went the easiest (and inexcusable) route to get it. That's a bummer. Could've saved $$$ by talking to a friend honestly vs wasting money presenting theft.
All this sucks badly, and it’s a terrible thing that you are going through this. It is hard for any artist to deal with someone ripping them off. What follows is not meant to challenge you or to get you annoyed, but I just started reflecting on guy #2 and came up with some thoughts from an artistic level.
Both the natures of photography and of contemporary art leave the possibility of guy #2 open. I think most photographers have set out to learn a technique by copying a photo by a master as close as they can. It would seem potentially reasonable to figure out how to do a project the same way, no?
And’s there’s another angle. Maybe he’s like Richard Prince photographing photos or screenshotting social media threads, but taking it a step further into the interpretive.
Normally people will tell you, you can’t do that because so-and-so already did a similar project. And people will listen. But what if the artistic idea is to see what a different personality does with the same intention?What if you, Ulysses Aoki, decided you were going to do Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled Film Stills” or “Centerfolds”? Not because you wanted to copy CS, but because you wanted to see what made CS and UA different and try to bring a light on what an artistic intention is?
Pushed a little bit further, maybe it sounds a bit like Borges’ story “Pierre Menard, author of Don Quixote”?
That’s as far as I will push it, but to be clear, even after saying all this, I don’t think what guy #2 did was cool at all (I suspect his motives had nothing to do with the speculations above).
Lars, thank you for challenging the topic and I agree with your perspective too! (Hence the name of this article!)
There's a wider discussion here at hand too as you pointed out. Where does imitation or inspiration end? Guy #2 in this article's photos were frankly, not close to the quality of images that I have out there (sounds cocky, but just being clear). In that sense, I've learned that quality will always be the differentiator, which is something I might want to discuss in a video for the future.
I must say that the power of social media in a way allowed you to find out these two "guys". I would not be surprised if these types of situations existed without the original creator knowing pre-digital era. I can understand that sometimes ideas do spawn among different artists, but they are never that "exact" in presentation.
This is a whole different topic, but I guess I can understand why some of my friends put watermark (although quite cheesy) on their work.
I am curious on how "the guy" was able to get the files of your photos that are suitable for print out. I am sure if they were grabbed from your IG, the file size would not be enough for a quality print.
How do they sleep at night? This too shall pass. Your great work shines by its own light dear Ulysses, unlike poor imitators who merely fade away or get snuffed out. X
Thank you so much Rod. Your words mean a lot!
This is wild, I'm sorry you're going through this. Shameful behavior on their part.
Thanks Wes... yeah it's wild stuff isn't it?
This is crazy! And unimaginable! There must be a sense of personal violation - almost like someone came into your house while you’re sleeping and take some of your personal stuff. Yuck! Is there ways to pattern/copyright your art/ideas and bring legal action when people steal them in Japan?
Hey Chantale, yeah crazy... and as you said, I feel like I just got robbed. I'm sure I can sue this person in particular that did the exhibition. But suing people in general isn't that common here in Japan, and often takes more time and money on the claimant's end especially for smaller cases like this.
I wonder what mental connections have to fire in someone's brain to go that far and not hit a red flag that says, "Hmm, MAYBE I shouldn't be doing this."
In regards to the first guy, it makes me think that the photographs or the path of "being a photographer" was never the focal point. To take a stab in the dark, he needs a hug. He might've latched onto the sense of accomplishment, support, and attention he saw from your exhibition experience and went the easiest (and inexcusable) route to get it. That's a bummer. Could've saved $$$ by talking to a friend honestly vs wasting money presenting theft.
Sorry that happened to you!
No I totally agree and I'm really glad you mentioned your approach Josh! I thought the same (to be explained in vid coming out tomorrow!)
All this sucks badly, and it’s a terrible thing that you are going through this. It is hard for any artist to deal with someone ripping them off. What follows is not meant to challenge you or to get you annoyed, but I just started reflecting on guy #2 and came up with some thoughts from an artistic level.
Both the natures of photography and of contemporary art leave the possibility of guy #2 open. I think most photographers have set out to learn a technique by copying a photo by a master as close as they can. It would seem potentially reasonable to figure out how to do a project the same way, no?
And’s there’s another angle. Maybe he’s like Richard Prince photographing photos or screenshotting social media threads, but taking it a step further into the interpretive.
Normally people will tell you, you can’t do that because so-and-so already did a similar project. And people will listen. But what if the artistic idea is to see what a different personality does with the same intention?What if you, Ulysses Aoki, decided you were going to do Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled Film Stills” or “Centerfolds”? Not because you wanted to copy CS, but because you wanted to see what made CS and UA different and try to bring a light on what an artistic intention is?
Pushed a little bit further, maybe it sounds a bit like Borges’ story “Pierre Menard, author of Don Quixote”?
That’s as far as I will push it, but to be clear, even after saying all this, I don’t think what guy #2 did was cool at all (I suspect his motives had nothing to do with the speculations above).
Lars, thank you for challenging the topic and I agree with your perspective too! (Hence the name of this article!)
There's a wider discussion here at hand too as you pointed out. Where does imitation or inspiration end? Guy #2 in this article's photos were frankly, not close to the quality of images that I have out there (sounds cocky, but just being clear). In that sense, I've learned that quality will always be the differentiator, which is something I might want to discuss in a video for the future.
I must say that the power of social media in a way allowed you to find out these two "guys". I would not be surprised if these types of situations existed without the original creator knowing pre-digital era. I can understand that sometimes ideas do spawn among different artists, but they are never that "exact" in presentation.
This is a whole different topic, but I guess I can understand why some of my friends put watermark (although quite cheesy) on their work.
Sorry that you had to go through this. Cheers!
I agree Joe- and I'm sure there are other cases out there that I'm just not aware of...
I've always hated the watermark stuff but now I think I understand............
I am curious on how "the guy" was able to get the files of your photos that are suitable for print out. I am sure if they were grabbed from your IG, the file size would not be enough for a quality print.
Most welcome i