Digital Home Thoughts: A Photograph of A Photograph? That's Plagiarism, Right?

"I'm fascinated by Richard Prince's Cowboy prints, and not just because they have a tendency to shatter auction records. Prince has re-photographed a series of existing images that were used in Marlboro cigarette ads, blown them up, and claimed them as his own. Prince never credited the original photographers (neither did the advertisements) so it's hard to know who they were and how they feel about it. The New York Times recently identified one of them as photographer Jim Krantz. Now we know another one: Sam Abell. Abell has a forthcoming book called The Life of a Photograph. As part of his presentation Saturday here, he mentioned that one of his photographs, shot in 1996 for the Leo Burnett ad agency as part of a Marlboro ad, was re-appropriated by Prince."

I make no pretense about understanding "art". I know what I like, and what moves me, but I make no distinction between whether it's hand-painted, photographed, or rendered on a computer. This story will be of interest to anyone that has ever picked up a camera - it's amazing what this "artist", Richard Prince, has been able to get away with. Watch the video - it's pretty amazing the kind of personality it would take to pull something like this off.