Richard Prince (Born in August 6th, 1949) He is painter and photographer. Richard Prince has had some controversy around him due to him copying other photographers work and reappropriateing them and claiming the work as his own.

The infamous photograph Untitled Cowboy was appropriated from a commercial cigarette advertisement. As simple photography like this was only copped to convey a new meaning. This photograph alone raised more than $1 million at auction in 2005. The Untiled Cowboy is an intriguing piece of work, both as a work of art and its context. Granted, the Untitled Cowboy hasn’t been changed other than a simple cropping of the frame; however, something so simple can elicit a rather profound meaning to the context that it is applied to.

The original photograph more or less seems to be undermined by the power of the advertisement its self. It could be said that Richard Prince has simply brought forth the value of the photograph that is used on the advertisement. Richard Prince took the opportunity to show the world what a good photograph can be. Richard Prince is quite fascinating when it comes to ‘his’ work and claiming it as his own work of art. Appropriation can either be simple or complex, Richard Prince’s photographic appropriation can easily said to be a simple manipulation (cropping, changing colour etc.)

The ethical issue comes to the playing field is that an appropriated piece of work can discredit the work of the original photograph. For example, a photograph that is not well known or seen extensively in the public eye can easily be washed away by a popular artist such as Richard Prince due to him reappropriateing a photograph. Richard Prince is a very fascinating individual when it comes to the world of photograph and creative art.

John Stezaker (Born in 1948) he is a conceptual artist, his work tends to fall under the more surreal area. His work is rather captivating, his method of appropriation is fascinating. His method of appropriation is made using collage and mixing it with pre-existing art such as postcards, film stills and publicity photographs. His appropriation pieces have allegorical meaning behind them, I see them as each individual will have their own unique way of interpreting them. To be able to produce work that can have a vast level of meaning to different people is astonishing. That is why I find his work so captivating, because he is able to make us consciously think on what the photo represents and how we see the image itself.

Jeff Koons (Born in January 21st 1955) doesn’t specialise in appropriation, however, I find some of his projects and art pieces interesting. He mainly works with large objects such as stainless steel. What I like about him is that he finds objects such as balloons an inspiration to do a piece of sculpture. It’s the simple objects in the world that can lead to magnificent projects and pieces of art work. Sometimes it’s the everyday things around us in life that can/will make the most intriguing pieces of contemporary art.

Zak Arctander (Born in 1986) who is a graduate from the University of Yale, has some rather interesting appropriation work. His most recent piece of work has been under some fire for not accrediting the original authors of the photograph. He has been compared to Richard Prince due to his ethics of appropriating other people’s work. With Zak’s work, he actually appropriates an image, not just cropping it. Zak will use composites of other images and fuse them with the image that he is appropriating. He actually manages to transform the picture and give it new meaning as a whole.