Does it matter who did it first? or does it matter who does better? I don’t feel originality matters if you are making art for yourself and having fun. I think that happens to bands as well. Paralleling. I’ve done that a lot and made a conscious effort not to. ‘You know who you sound like?’ – worst thing ever to say to a band. With artists if I noticed a parallel I would maybe ask if they know of that artist in the head space of great minds think alike at different times. I think people over use their reticular cortex before sussing out someone else’s feelings or asking questions about intent.

I think David Hockney’s collage photos are so simply brilliant – time capsules of beauty. I don’t know that I could write how much I truly love them all. I never really thought to have a go myself, but I was trying to get a student I was teaching to do these photo collages – it seemed like a project she’d enjoy. My colleague who taught photography before me gave me a hand out she wrote on this technique which she called neo-cubism. Love that. And, then I thought – the best way forward is to experiment and make a bunch myself. I never thought that it would become so addictive. So much to learn still about best lenses and distances to find a formula to what might be the most effective technique for the scene.

The local win here is views that we see on regular basis. To see something so familiar in a different or clever context will never go out of style. Am I the first person to photograph that building? Highly unlikely. Did I photograph that building the best? Highly unlikely. Did I photograph it for me? Highly likely.

My favorite comment so far about this series, “what app did you use to do this?”