Feeling Like a Copycat Means You Are Still Early, Not Lost
Photographer Arno Minkkinen argued that work looks the same at the start, and originality comes to those who ride long enough to reach the split.
Curiosity Chronicle · The Helsinki Bus Station TheoryEarly work looks much the same, and the split comes later. That was Finnish-American photographer Arno Minkkinen's point to photography graduates in a 2004 commencement address.
Picture, he said, Helsinki's big central bus depot, with two dozen platforms and several outward lines leaving each one.
Pick a platform and you pick a general direction, he said. “Each bus stop represents one year in the life of a photographer.”
Minkkinen described the letdown this way: “So, you've been working for 3 years. You take those 3 years of work to the museum, and the curator asks if you are familiar with the very similar work of another artist. Shocked, you realize that what you've been doing for 3 years, others have already done. So, you hop off the bus, grab a cab, because life is short, and head straight back to the bus station looking for another bus.”
After more time that disappointment returns, and the photographer heads back to the station hunting a bus that will finally deliver the distinctiveness sought.
The mistake, in his account, is leaving before the shared road ends. “They begin to separate, each number heading off to its own unique destination. Bus 33 suddenly goes north, bus 19 southwest.”
For a time, he added, buses 21 and 71 may dovetail, but soon they split as well. His advice was simple: “Stay on the bus.” As retold, the lesson is to ride long enough for a distinct path to emerge.
Questions people ask
Why does early work tend to look so similar?
Beginners usually learn from the same teachers, heroes, and assignments, and they often use the same tools. That shared start naturally produces similar results. Differences in judgment, taste, and experience take time to show up in the work.
Does this mean you should never quit or change direction?
No. Minkkinen warned against quitting when work looks unoriginal early on, not against ever changing course. If the general direction still interests you, feeling unoriginal is normal. If you dislike the destination itself, a different platform can make sense.
How long do you have to stay before your work diverges?
There is no set number, and three years was just his example for photographers. The idea is to measure in years of steady work, not weeks or projects. In this view, the split often appears after you stay past the point where quitting feels most tempting.