Yes, this is a homage.
A friend of mine saw a tribute (cover) band a while back. He said they were very good at impersonating the real band. They had the playlist in the right order, hit all the notes and did the moves. But they didn’t do it first. That to me is the separation between art and craft. It’s the ability to use the craft to convey your thoughts or feelings about a subject. Playing someone else’s song note for note is not high art, but high craft. These guys had the skill, craft and technical proficiency, to reproduce tone for tone other’s original work. Tone for tone, eh? That’s my cue translate this into photography speak.
We have tribute photographers, too. All of us, at certain phases of our lives can’t go by a photogenic green pepper (me, too!), or a torn poster on a wall or just drive on through the Wawona Tunnel in Yosemite without pulling out a camera and making a photograph. We all make or remake our version of the classic images. The suggestion (again) is, if you are not the first, do it better, or do it differently to let us (your audience) know either the subject or yourself better. When you look in your viewfinder or ground glass and see a photograph that you have already seen before, then please don’t waste either your time or our time on that image.
Craft is important. But it is a tool in service of your art. You can duplicate the masters if you choose. We all do, just remember, it’s a stop along the way to developing your own art.
It doesn’t take much effort to make a photograph. It takes a lot of effort to make a really good photograph.
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