Stupid overused cliches in photography

With all of the guitar players in the world, why would anyone want to play the guitar?

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Moving On

A great use of cliché in art is to use one to comment on one. Maybe I'll call it (maybe someone's done so before me) the meta-cliché. The knowing or self aware use of a cliché not just because it's ok to do so sometime, but in order to communicate irony or something beyond it.

 

CINDY SHERMAN EXHIBIT

Call me crazy but when I come across something I don't like on the internet, be it on social media or in forums, I usually scroll right past it, barely giving it half a thought.

I know ignoring stuff has been done, but is it cliché?

 

@ruslan, OK, you've found a few photos of boots/shoes. So what? 550px, Flick, SmugMug, Instagram and even PN has (HUGELY) a much wider range of photos than you've chosen to rant about. Why would you choose footwear?

The sites offer me those photos because they think I must like them.

I wonder why photographers repeat that subject.

I am now reading a brick-lke 800-pages book about R. Avedon's work in France and charming Audrey Hepburn. I like, I am astonished by Irving Penn and Brassai, Garry Winogrand, Lillian Bassman and Peter Lindbergh. That was real art.

 

Those foot/boot "trends" from 2014 make me cringe...

The sites offer me those photos because they think I must like them.

I wonder why photographers repeat that subject.

I know this is not considered polite, but can I see some of your work?

I know this is not considered polite, but can I see some of your work?

I have posted about 30 or more cheap-and dirty works in no-words forum. You must have seen them.

But...

My best ones are not here.

Are you on Viewbug? You may find me there.

I know this is not considered polite, but can I see some of your work?

I don’t see it as a matter of pokiteness as much as relevance. To be sure, there are cases where someone is offering opinions where the quality or type of their work may be relevant to assessing their opinion. But, as much as I tend often to disagree with Ruslan, the quality of his photography wouldn’t influence my opinion of his OP. That opinion rises and falls on face value. There are plenty of opinions about photography that matter and have validity that come from beginning photographers or non-photographers. They should be dismissed if they’re claiming expertise they lack or talking about specific where technical or aesthetic expertise would make a difference. But everyone, regardless of their portfolio, is allowed their taste and an opinion about clichés. It seems to me those opinions rise and fall on their merits, not a portfolio that’s either good or bad.

 

Ruslan’s opinion fails to persuade me under its very own weight, no confirming portfolio needed. :)

I don't want to boast but if they chose one of my work to print in their book, if I have been 4 times a finalist on a extremely, extremely competitive Viewbug (3 are portrait category, 1 is still life), during 16 months of my presence there, I never paid them for a pro membership, I may have the right for my opinion on photography. :)

I don't want to boast but if they chose one of my work to print in their book, if I have been 4 times a finalist on a extremely, extremely competitive Viewbug (3 are portrait category, 1 is still life), during 16 months of my presence there, I never paid them for a pro membership, I may have the right for my opinion on photography. :)

That doesn’t give your opinion any more weight to me than not having a portfolio would take weight away. As I said, your opinion fails to persuade or make much sense to me on its own weight, regardless of portfolio, awards, or photographic accomplishments. Talent, and website rewards and accomplishments don’t necessarily mean talent so much as popularity, doesn’t necessarily come with supportable or coherent opinions.

I have posted about 30 or more cheap-and dirty works in no-words forum. You must have seen them.

But...

My best ones are not here.

Are you on Viewbug? You may find me there.

I see that you shoot many of the same clichés that I do. That is the relevance here, IMO. It's like sunsets. There are literally millions of them online, including a dozen of my competent but no better examples; yet, once or twice a year I see one that can still make a direct emotional connection.

I see that you shoot many of the same clichés that I do. That is the relevance here,

So, let’s say his portfolio had more unique and original photos. Would that make his opinion as stated in the OP have any more sway over you?

Darn it Rusian....and I was planning a book.

Sharp

Tack Sharp

Edge To Edge Sharp :(

Etc etc etc.

Who gives a kcuF.

Congratulations.....your lousy photos, that you shot with your super expensive f/1.2, razor sharp lens, are still crummy. :)

It seems that cliches are like beauty; a quality that each may perceive differently.

An interesting source of data on this can be obtained from the Flickr database: do a search on the keyword "cliche" and check out the results. The search can be performed here: Search: Cliche | Flickr

One thing that struck me about many of those images: many could be characterized as boring without also being labeled as a "cliche".

It seems that cliches are like beauty; a quality that each may perceive differently.

While we’re on the subject, what’s a quality that each of us DOESN’T perceive differently?

While we’re on the subject, what’s a quality that each of us DOESN’T perceive differently?

Many qualities are perceived identically......

The room is dark.

Put a flashlight on the table and see how many pick it up.

 

How many people will choose identical film to use in the same situation.

Many qualities are perceived identically......

My point is that “beauty” has become one of those qualities and is, for the most part, a cliché. Ask 10 people on the Internet to pick out the “beautiful” woman and I’d be surprised if 10 didn’t choose one in a John Peri photo and not in a Dianne Arbus photo.

 

Speaking of dark, I hear darkness in photos is perceived differently by different people as well.

But each isn’t different.

 

There is a lot of common perception, (and misperception) out there....

There is a lot of common perception, (and misperception) out there....

My original comment was ironic, based on repeated hearings that photography is subjective, at least when it comes to interpretation and appreciation. So, I was alluding to the fact that many people claim a lot more than beauty and clichés are perceived differently.

 

I agree with you, there is a lot of common perception out there. There are also common responses, though they likely vary more from person to person than perceptions.

 

Art and Beauty seem to bring out a need to assert individuality at the expense of common perception and understanding. I think that’s unnecessary because I think we can have deeply personal responses even to things of which we share similar perceptions and understandings. A theater full of people may be full of sobs at a really sad movie, which means the director has successfully communicated sadness. Each may take that sadness personally, and respond to it as if it belongs, in some sense, to them.

 

Clichés simply take the easy way out at achieving common understanding. They simplify and repeat instead of demanding or hoping for more from both the maker of the cliché and the audience.

 

In photography as in other art, cliché is less a matter of subject and more a matter of simplistic and shallow vision.

I expect cliche in photographs points to a common perception more often than anything else.

Common reaction to a beautiful sunset.

Awe.

Take a picture.

No matter how many photographs I see of sunsets, I still enjoy experiencing a sunset.

The experience transcends the photograph.

 

That is where the Frank quote comes into play.

Sensory burnout......

Blown out Highlights.....

Over Exposure.....

Boredom.

 

But that as well is in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Moving On

Sunsets are fine, but I'll take a midnight walk on a rain-soaked back street with the red reflections and buzzing noise of a neon bar or seedy hotel sign adding to just a little bit of tension in the air any day. ;)

Ahh. more floating Frank quotes without context...

"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice."

Robert Frank

"There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough – there has to be vision, and the two together can make a good photograph"

Robert Frank

I am fed up with that tasteless and uninspired, even boring 2014 cliches.

 

Seeing myself and some others, sometimes (not always) people take pictures of their feet when they feel bored. If you are feeling that boredom by viewing some of those pictures, I would say thats damn successful in terms of photography, aren't they! You feel as if you were right there.

Feet up in the foreground of pleasant scenery as initially described is a universal conveyance of relaxation......