Going through my archives, I often notice that some of my pictures are cunningly similar to some of the other photographer’s works.

Some case the similarity is purely coincidental, in others it’s the evidence of likely thinking. But many of the “copycat” photos are a result of deep imprints that impressive visuals leave in our minds. When I find myself in a scene similar to that I’ve seen before in a photograph I liked, my mind involuntarily builds a similar composition, which at its turn can produce a picture similar to the original. The scene has “ripened” to be photographed.

A boy in an IDP settlement. Georgia, 2009

A boy with a grenade in Central Park © Diane Arbus, 1962

Svaneti, 2010.

© Elliott Erwitt