Imitation comes about through admiration of something joyful, stylistically cool, or even nostalgic, among other reasons. The creation of this image came from an idea of Steven’s about capturing a similar pose that the late Beatle, John Lennon, had once done for photographer Henry Grossman. He wanted to recreate this image because it was developed during the iconic Sgt. Pepper era. He said to me: “It is my favorite era of the Beatles’ aesthetic, and I think it is a unique and thought-provoking image of John Lennon. It’s one that captures his playful mystique, and it is one that is not often reproduced.”
Additionally, and most importantly, this image was to be used as an eye-catching poster and announcement for his undergraduate senior recital in classical guitar. Steven, like myself, had been looking forward to seeing it be displayed and to share it with his classmates and professors, as is tradition around the Hall-Musco Conservatory at Chapman University. Senior recitals are the culmination of the musician’s undergraduate career and feature an hour of solo repertoire played to a live audience, usually in the campus’ Salmon Recital Hall. The recitals also function as a celebration of the students’ repertoire that they tirelessly aim to craft and perfect through self-discipline and long hours spent in practice rooms.
However, amid all the wonderful and self-fulfilled experiences that made up Steven’s four-year journey at Chapman CoPA, all live performances were cancelled due to the unforeseen circumstances of the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Steven, along with his fellow musicians, was unable to fulfill or experience his last performance at Salmon Hall, which would have marked a celebratory hurrah towards his discipline in the realm of classical guitar. Determined not to let those circumstances halt his ability to share his hard work with his family and friends, Steven put on a virtual recital under the theme of “Resilience through Music”, giving an excellent recital filled with beautiful music and which shed some light on an otherwise unfortunate situation. The link to a recording of his performance can be found here: Steven Gudino Senior Guitar Recital Livestream
All in all, working with Steven to develop this image was both enjoyable and very meaningful to recreate; although it is not too closely imitative of the original photo of John Lennon — we chose to only take the likeness of its aesthetic, which was exactly what Steven had in mind. Also, this project required the fun challenge to produce a flower background, so I put my best foot forward and arranged the flower backdrop by using both artificial flowers and fresh flowers, and chose colors that I knew would complement Steven’s blue suit.
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Truly, imitation is inevitable as we go through life. The important part is to know how to make it yours, while still respecting the source which inspired you. It was exactly so in this case of Steven’s admiration for the legendary songwriter John Lennon and my newfound admiration for the photographer Henry Grossman. In its most honest essence, imitation is a manifestation of the love for art.
