No More Of These Street Photographs!
I get it, it’s hard not to copy. Making art is often about copying. However, we also need to push ourselves beyond merely copying. We must push boundaries and visual paradigms and innovate if we want to keep our visual senses alive. I also know that this is increasingly hard in an era where everything is constantly photographed. Most images are, in some way or another, familiar. Yet, there are some “motifs” that are overdone to the point of becoming cliche. In street photography we see a lot of copying and repetition. Unfortunately, photographers look at the social media feeds of those they admire and then they try to copy their work. Good practice in how to use a camera, maybe, but a bad strategy for getting attention as an artist. I recently served on the jury of an international photo competition and I noticed some “trends” that are in danger of becoming so overdone that I was inclined to vote down many of the photographs simply because they depicted the following motifs.
Umbrellas – This one likely needs little introduction. We constantly see photographs of people with umbrellas. Umbrellas, puddles, and rain. This all started way back with Henri Cartier-Bresson. We love to photograph people in the rain. Fair enough. I am not saying one cannot make a photograph of someone with an umbrella and make it good enough to be novel in some way. Likely quite a feat though. I, too, made some photographs this summer of people in the rain with their umbrellas. It is as if my fingers naturally wanted to press the shutter. I deleted all the images in the end, except the one shown here, because they were too cliche. I kept this image just for this article. Skip the umbrellas.
Copyright ⓒ Michael Ernest Sweet
Monkey Bars – Frolicing kids, muscled teens and young men, whatever it may be, we don’t need any more street photos of the “complex” composition of half a dozen people on monkey bars at the beach. Way overdone. Seriously, ask yourself how many times you’ve seen “this” photo?
Religious Parades – This year I saw a huge uptick in street photographs featuring people in religious “parades” wearing headgear and hoods and all kinds of nonsense. Yes, it can be visually interesting, I suppose, but very much less so when you see it done again and again. Do you have to not take photographs of these religious parades? No. You can do whatever you like. Photograph what makes you happy. But if you are trying to win a photo contest, I would say that it is unlikely that you will do so with a photograph of someone in a pointy hood. Maybe a few years ago, but not today. I passed over these images so quickly you almost wouldn’t believe it.
“Alex Webb” Photographs – I love Alex Webb’s work. The complex compositions with multiple parts of multiple people mingled in amongst some light and shadow can make a really great photograph… if you’re Alex Webb. If you’re not Alex Webb you have a lot more work to do to make an image like his and still stand out on your own. This kind of image is highly copied in the world of street photography. This is good for Alex Webb, as it is certainly a compliment, but it is not good for you if you are entering a contest. Some of the Webb copies I saw were not only so closely copied that I doubted their being candid, but they were also so familiar that I thought I had seen them before. This makes a photo like this very unlikely to stand out enough that it would place in a competition. Let Alex Webb be Alex Webb. You be you.
Blur – Now, I love a photo with some blur. I am all about being natural with the camera and allowing good, organic “mistakes” to characterize a frame. Photographs do not need to be technically perfect to be excellent photographs. However, a bad photo cannot be made good simply because some blur has been introduced. This is not enough. We call this a “one trick pony”. If you like blur, go for it. But you also need to pay close attention to the other elements of the photograph – composition, subject matter, etc. Blur alone just isn’t enough – ever. Look to William Klein’s street photography to understand how to employ blur more effectively.
Pigeons – This is sneaking up on the list of street photography cliches. Yes, the rapid movement of those wings can be fun in the foreground of a street photo. But now everyone is doing it. I saw way too many pigeons in the contest this year. Move on… look for bears! My photo below has a bird in the image, but the odd positioning of the bird and the other graphic elements make the photo unique enough to overcome cliche. It’s not that birds or pigeons are a total “no go” it’s more about how you capture them in your frame. I’m also not pretending that my photographs are the gold standard, before you write in the comments that I’m doing so, I’m just saying … work to make a unique frame, not one you have seen someone else already make.
Copyright ⓒ Michael Ernest Sweet
Kids with Guns – Not cool and way too overdone. It would be rare for me to see a photograph of a kid with a gun that would get my vote. This type of image has become way too cliche for me. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of iterations of this kind of photo. Additionally, given the situation in the USA with actual kids with actual guns, this kind of image no longer has the kind of charm it may have had in the days of William Klein.
Drones – Drone photography is another type of photography that is simply overdone at this point. When drones were first employed this was a very novel view of the world – from up above. Prior to consumer drones aerial photography had to be conducted by plane or helicopter at enormous expense – think Edward Burtynsky. There were few photographers in this space, relatively speaking, for a long part of photography’s history. Now, we are becoming so accustomed to this view that it no longer holds much appeal on its own. Drone photography is almost as common as coffee and kittens. There has to be more going on in the photograph than merely an aerial view. Stephen Shore has done some recent drone photography that is interesting enough to break through the cliches. Check that out.
Again, I want to reiterate that you should photograph whatever gives you pleasure. Copying is not a bad way of learning. But when you are ready to break out of the novice space and become an artist photographer in your own right, you will need to surpass the making of cliche images. If, for example, you are looking to place in a contest, keep in mind that we look for uniqueness and freshness of vision more than anything else – at least good critics do. So, be you and be different.
Comment
Thanks for this. Some really helpful things to avoid.
As a relative newcomer to street photography, I find myself being ‘drawn in’ to some of these clichés.
I will try and be me.
Pat Wood