Art Imitates Art

Credit to Jason Kottke for letting me know about this: apparently it's a thing to make photographs that imitate famous paintings.  Here's an example:

“Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary” remake by Marianna Oboeva

“Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary” by Renoir

In fact, it's such a thing, there was a contest.  I've been doing this for years without even realizing it was a thing.  The contest has ended, sadly, but you still get to see the imitations I've made over the years.  I'd prefer to think of them as homages.

Water lillies in the Trinity Alps

Water lillies by Monet

Jeffrey pine in the Trinity Alps

Jeffrey pine in Yosemite, by Ansel Adams

Falling soldier at an American civil war reenactment

Falling Soldier from the Spanish civil war, by Robert Capa

Irish brigade soldier

Irish brigade soldier by Don Troiani

The last breakfast at a diner in Reno.  (True to form, the figure in the middle is Jewish.)

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

My wife, Yelena, standing next to a statue by Degas

Me, standing next to a statue of Charlie Chaplin.  I didn't have a cane so I used my camera tripod.

This last one I'm going to do in reverse order.  For Valentine's Day, many years ago, Yelena gave me this poster:

I went to the Louvre, found the statue, and photographed it.  Yelena wasn't there so I superimposed us, posing in trenchcoats:

Years later, we got married, went to Paris on our honeymoon, and finally posed for real in front of the statue:

In a rare case of a painting imitating a photograph, my sister copied the poster onto a chair: