Do you think you create original work?

It’s pretty hard to create something wholly original if you’ve ever looked at anything in the world

No, this is a hobby and I produce work that interests me.

Originality is not my key driver.

B.

Originality is simultaneously automatic (all artworks are originals) and essentially impossible (it's impossible not to be influenced)

Creative originality is not *truly* possible except in extremely narrow contexts, like sometimes in technically-enabled contexts; there will always be the first person to use a tool to make a kind of art it wasn't designed for, etc.

Away from abstract theories, originality in photography is so difficult that I wish more people were just flatly honest about their influences.

Originality *away* from photography might be easier. 

So me? No. In fact everything I do is a study of something someone else did that is original only because of its location or the person in it or the combination thereof. It is original only in the automatic sense.

Buddygb said

No, this is a hobby and I produce work that interests me.

Originality is not my key driver.

B.

Same for me.

My key driver is enjoyment. 

It doesn't matter what you create there is a good chance it has been done before even if you have no recollection of seeing something similar. Taking model/fashion/portrait images it is very difficult to produce something 'original' that others would find interesting imho.

I plod along, get inspired from many areas not PP photography related, my wife is a talented stylist though doesn't get involved since dispensing with the studio. Models come up with interesting ideas too which we develop and have a go with. There's really no need to copy stuff from here, and I don't think the majority actively do that, though there are a few who can't help themselves.

Is every tree the same? Even if we try our hardest to copy a style or an image, it will never be exactly the same, and we enjoy the creation no less—we just have a better idea of how it may turn out.

Ripped jeans shoots have been done to death, but I still see some being posted and think, "Wow—good job!" Bath shoots are done by someone somewhere every week, yet I still see some and think, "Awesome."

I saw someone line a wall with tin foil to create a light refraction backdrop, which looked very cool in the images. Just recently, I saw someone line the walls and ceiling with tin foil, and in the pictures, it totally looked like the model was underwater, with light rays and all.

There’s nothing truly new in the world, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy creating something that’s new for you, imho.

So no i can never create something not done before in some way - but it's new to me :-) 

Edited by ANDY00

If I put my ouevre of photography on display I think to some level there is a sense of originality at least in concept. This is not to say that I'd be arrogant enough to think I'm the first person, just technique wise I feel in some shoots I have tried something not all would. This is not to pretend that I feel it's entirely divorced from what's come before it just that I didn't look at these past ideas but was more about what I enjoyed or wanted to experiment with at the time, whether my use of perspective or light.

Yes,

i'd say i have made some original images (Weird images!) that has not been done by others ;-)

If so, it was by accident.

No, this is my hobby and I use other pics as a jumping off point.

I very much doubt it.

Yes. A selfie of me with a pair of  boxing gloves on my feet, balancing a coconut on my head, wearing a Victorian ruff, holding a teddy bear in my left hand, Penny, my rubber chicken in my right hand. Lit by gel lights and edited in the painterly style of Rembrandt! 💁🏼‍♂️ Beat that! 😂😂

No. I don't try to. For me, as with others it seems, it is a hobby. I just enjoy the shoots. 

Occasionally.