In March 2015, Sony Artisan Brian Matiash sat down with our friends at 500px for a live Q&A session. Photographers from around the world were encouraged to ask questions of Brian, his photography, and his work. The questions came flooding in and after several hours, we had collected and answered over 250 questions.

At the end of the Q&A, Brian selected his favorite question asked by a participant, who won a Sony α6000 Mirrorless Interchangeable-lens Camera w/ 16-50mm lens and an exclusive 500px T-shirt! The winning question and answer was:

Gus D.: Hey Brian, in your opinion what makes a photo original? We see so many photos of the same subject over and over. What do you look for to make a photo stand out?

BRIAN: Gus — thank you for asking what has, thus far, been my favorite question in this Q&A series. This is one of the most important questions that we each need to be able to answer for ourselves. At its core, what makes my photos original is “ME!” Please don’t take this as me poking fun or being conceited. Quite the opposite.

You can also read the entire Q&A session here.