There are certain photos, or types of photos, that are taken so often
they have pretty much become cliche. They're pretty, that's why they've
been taken so often, but so many people have taken pretty much the same
shot, that not only has someone probably already taken it, they've
probably done a better job of it than you.
I'm not saying that they aren't worth taking, like I said, they're
pretty, you can learn a lot from taking just about any photo, and the
opportunity to compare your work with others is another potential
learning opportunity.
When I was on my photo walk the other day, I realized that a lot of the
photos that I was taking were playing on the theme of repeating
patterns, bikes on a row, rowboats, or canues stacked up, the "plaid"
peso, I posted, treads on a tractor:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157628282737593/
I think that they are all nice photos, and it takes developing the eye
to a certain point to start seeing those photos, but when I think about
it, I've seen some variation of almost all of those photos before. I
realized that my photography has progressed to the point that what I'm
taking are second order cliches.
There is nothing wrong with these formulaic photos, and most people who
don't look at a lot of photos, probably wouldn't even recognize the
existence of the "second order cliche". This brings up a question that I
find interesting, at what point will I be taking "third order cliches?".
Or more generally, what are the different orders of cliches?
0th order: Just look at facebook. Duckface self portraits, or almost
any self portrait taken with a camera at arms length. The "posed" shot
of friends in front of landmarks, or people drinking at a bar. They
don't make it to first order because they are generally done without any
artistic intent, they're generally meant as "just snapshots".
1st order: People are trying for a pretty photograph, and these are the
ones that everybody sees and photographs: Sunsets, light shining
through the backs of waves at the beach, pretty girls in the standard
poses, star tracks, HDR, and most photos that play with low depth of field.
2nd order: Repeating patterns of objects: bicycles, cars, shopping
carts, skeins of yarn. A moody photo of someone, or something on a
rainy day, getting rid of distracting backgrounds by using lighting to
leave them in the dark, or blow out the light in the background.
Likewise, extreme cropping and detail shots, which get rid of
distracting details in the background by not including them in the
photos, even if it means not showing large portions of the subject.
Note, that the above paragraph pretty much lists most of my major
creative techniques over the past couple of years. What do you consider
the different levels of cliche to be? What's next? What are third and
fourth order cliches?
--
Larry Colen l...@red4est.com (from dos4est)
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