Someone recreated these travel bloggers’ exact photos, and it’s a little creepy but also amazing
Depending on how you feel about imitation, you might receive it as flattery or reject it as flat-out capitalization on your originality, creativity and effort. But when it comes to the individual who recreated these travel bloggers’ exact Instagram photos, we couldn’t decide whether this is sincere praise or a reason to be sufficiently creeped out.
Featured on Bored Panda, travel photographers Jack Morris and Lauren Bullen run one of the best Instagram accounts for travel enthusiasts. Of their more than two million followers, one of them faithfully copied every one of the couple’s travel photos, down to the composition, wardrobe and obviously, the location.
What would you do if someone copied you like this? #travelblogger https://t.co/lbzdQb8dVv
— ThriftyTrails 🌎 (@ThriftyTrails) November 12, 2016
Per The Daily Mail, the follower taking the exact images has been outed and set her Instagram to private, but not before she settled the issue with Bullen, who addressed the incident on her blog:
"Having a large instagram following does come with some interesting experiences, but this has been by far the most odd one yet," Bullen wrote in the post titled Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery. "When a girl travels across the world recreating your exact imagery over and over again you begin to worry.. Part of why I do what I do is to inspire and motivate people through our art- our imagery. Which involves the full package; destination, framing, outfits, positioning, captions & edits."
In an update, Bullen added:
"I have been back in contact with Diana over the past 4 days once she unblocked me, and we have addressed this entire situation together. I have heard her reasons for all this, the apology has of course been accepted & we have discussed how this could have been handled differently & both agreed on how to finish all of this. I believe her word, she is NOT a stalker and this labelling needs to stop, so does the hate messages. She is of no threat to me or anyone else & she has agreed that is was over the line. She just got inspired and liked the style of my work it was never for publicity or for seeking attention. Any accounts on instagram labelling themselves as her are fake accounts."
So the lesson here isn’t exactly new, but clearly bears repeating: Artists who devote a ton of time, energy and hard work into creating original work deserve ALL the credit. Like their work on social media accordingly, but make sure that admiration doesn’t veer off into blatant thievery.
