Imitation is the Sincerest Form of…What?

I’ve previously written about imitation (e.g. Two Approaches to Photography), but a recent question asked in the Photography section of Reddit caught my interest and is a really good one: “When you look at a photographer you love [and try to imitate them] what are you actually trying to replicate?” We don’t ask ourselves enough questions about the photography side of photography, and that question is a pretty basic one that deserves an answer. For me, trying to replicate something someone else is doing is always an attempt to understand what decisions were made and to consider why they were made the way they were. I’m not trying to duplicate another photographer’s style or look, but instead am trying to understand how they might have developed it. Sometimes just the process of discovery reveals something that I either needed to know or at least contemplate. At WPPI (the big annual Wedding and Portrait photographers conference) a huge number of the training, seminars, and talks there…