Reference and Communication:
In order to link your photography to a message and convey this to your audience, there is the possibility of citing past famous works from the media landscape and incorporating different variants of references. It is irrelevant whether the descriptions are from novels, scenes from films, theater performances or other media products. References are references to and representations of statements, facts or special items of other works that have already been created and published. Specifically, these are visual representations of actions and scenes of performing arts that have already been shown in this or a similar way, or of individual illustrations of visual arts. By citing a famous work, the artist plays on the human ability to recognize similarities and to make references to what is already known. In photography, optical references are the most commonly used due to their nature. This is particularly useful in commercial advertising photography to refer to aspects that are already known and to convey messages to the viewer that are easy and quick to understand. But you must keep this important point in mind that you must mention the source of the quote or the photo you used as a reference, otherwise you will be accused of plagiarism.
For example, I copied the photo above from one of the photos of the German photographer “Peter Kitman” (1916-2005). I think it is an interesting photo. For this reason, I tried to take a picture of a CD almost like this German photographer. Professional ethics require that because the photo is a copy, the source and the name of the original photographer should be mentioned. Peter Keetman (1916-2005), he became known through a series of photos he took of the production of the Beetle at the VW plant in Wolfsburg. Here, too, it is important to take a close look at the whole as well as at the details. He revolutionized the view of products and industry through free work in the VW factory. His reduction to forms in order to depict individual parts, even in quantity, is impressive. Using the basics of communication, you can make specific statements with your photographs and convey them to your audience. Depending on the area of application, such communication is of course more in demand than the pure aesthetics of the image and vice versa. Commercial product photography often focuses on the aesthetics of the product, but messages can also be placed here in a targeted manner.