Samesies is a blog set up by Sophie Curtis, Dave Geeting and Alex Carman to show how ‘different people can essentially take the same pictures’. It’s a great blog to look through but the most interesting thing is the ideas that lie behind it.
To me it shows up more than anything how fashion imitates art and vice versa. It sort of serves as a tribute to how both conscious and subconscious influences affect us and our way of producing images because, whether anyone likes it or not, these influences will always be around us and are inescapable even as we strive to be original.
I don’t see the blog as a demeaning pick at fads in photography or a comment on how certain photographers are capitalizing on the innovators (nor is it intended to be considering they include many of their own images). I see it as a sort of attempt at documenting the massive matrix of forces and influences that affect how we see things and therefore how we photograph them - instead of trying to escape the idea of generation and ‘trend’ they are instead seeing, sorting and acknowledging, which is a rare thing and beats denial any day.
At least that’s my take on it.
I talked to Dave and Alex about the blog.
So I guess my first question would be whether you agree with that summary of the blog or if you had different ideas behind it?
Dave Geeting: I actually think you summed up the blog 10x better than I ever could have. For me, Samesies has always been about those ever-so-slight differences between images that are essentially the same. The magic happens where the photographs disagree. I personally don’t believe that “everything has been done before” no matter how hard people would like to argue this idea when talking about art, music, etc. Honestly, what the fuck are we supposed to do then, just sit around and admire everything that already exists? I get anxious when I’m not creating stuff. There is always room for your personal take on anything, no matter how close it is to the original.
Why did you start it?
Alex Carman: I came up with the concept after looking at how similar some of my photos were to Lewis Chaplin’s photos. I found it strange that we both admired and chose to photo the same subjects in the same way. I got speaking to Dave about it and when he started showing me some of the ones he found i was blown away. The impact it had visually as a blog was mindbending. I don’t think it would work as well on any other format. I have to say i’m lazy and haven’t posted on it in a while, so please give all credit to Sophie and Dave.
Did you think people would be offended by it?
DG: I thought some people might think we were making a mockery of their photographs or claiming them to be uncreative. There have been a few cases of hate mail, but I find that shit to be hilarious! When you upload a photo to the internet you are basically granting everyone access to do whatever the fuck they want with it. And so be it! All publicity is good publicity, right? Well, maybe not, but this certainly isn’t bad for anyone’s reputation. In fact there are a bunch of well-established art and photography related sites, such as Booooooom and Tiny Vices, that have linked to us around the web. Fuck the haters, we’re doing you a favor!
Do you think the similarities are more to do with coincidence or conscious choice?
DG: I would like to think that most of the similarities are pure coincidence, unless some tween somewhere had seen a photo and deliberately taken the same one to try to get on the blog. I don’t think that happens though, that’s pretty retarded, and that’s definitely not what the blog’s about. Actually, come to think of it, there are a couple exceptions to that rule, specifically this one but Sylvain-Emmanuel is one of my favorite photographers at the moment and his interpretation of that Corey Arnold photograph is pretty funny so whatever. More often than not, people unconsciously take similar photographs and I am far more interested in that kind of psychic relationship. I like the idea of making connections between people who would have otherwise never known each other.
AC: A friend always shows me the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It explains how we all somehow have the same concept of beauty. I think this is true and it’s especially prevalent when looking at the photographers we feature. So I implore anyone who likes the blog or has just discovered it to read that book.
