Top: "Untitled (Cowboy)" by Richard Prince.
Bottom: "Calf Rescue" by Jim Krantz for Marlboro.
Richard Prince is a photographer who developed the idea of "appropriation art"--in this case, photographing other people's photographs. His photographs are intended challenge the viewer to question the notion of originality in art.
On the one hand, photographing a photograph would seem no more creative than photocopying a photograph. However, Prince does alter the images he photographs, however slightly--he crops them and plays with the colors in them. I also think that we can't dismiss a photograph simply because it is a photograph of the work of another artist. For example, the works of video artist Bill Viola are photographed by his wife Kira Perov, and photographers often take pictures of buildings, which are arguably works designed by other artists. There is also a precedent for artists appropriating objects or images designed by others and exhibiting them as their own work, as with Duchamp's readymades. I think that Prince's work forces the viewer to question her assumptions about the importance of authenticity in art.
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