Street photography cliches

Steve

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Maybe there is no such thing as an original idea. But street photography seems to rely on cliches more than any other genre of photography. Either that or I've just been unlucky to see the same repetitive dross on flickr masquerading as street photography.

So here are my top five repeated street photograpy cliches.

1. Black and white conversions. Not just black and white, but with unfeasibly large grain that makes the photo look like a photocopy of a newspaper picture from the 1980s.

2. Someone sitting on a bench. That's what they are there for....sitting on. Hardly an unusual activity. Maybe timid street photographers like the idea that their target is sitting so is unlikely to challenge them.

3. Old people. One day we will all be old, and look tired/confused. Just because someone is old, doesn't make them an interesting subject.

4. People talking on mobiles. Maybe 20 years ago but now.....really?

5. Street traders and street artists. I'm lumping these together as they're both a common sight of people just making a living on the street. They are everywhere and not generally very interesting.

Of course, the above can be cumulative... I can imagine faux street photographers wetting themselves at the black and white conversion they have planned of that old woman texting while sitting on a bench next to a veg stall.
 
You're forgetting homeless guy (with or without dog/blanket/coffee/tennants super).

:thumbs:
 
Don't discourage the timid ... the easy targets make street photography an option for them.
 
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I think he's trying to discourage clichés.
 
Think I would rather see someone on a bench, an old person or a street artist than some of the cut-off, random, angular pics with flare that are passed off as street TBH :shrug:
 
No idea what you've been looking at there Gramps :)
 
Steve said:
Maybe there is no such thing as an original idea. But street photography seems to rely on cliches more than any other genre of photography. Either that or I've just been unlucky to see the same repetitive dross on flickr masquerading as street photography.

So here are my top five repeated street photograpy cliches.

1. Black and white conversions. Not just black and white, but with unfeasibly large grain that makes the photo look like a photocopy of a newspaper picture from the 1980s.

2. Someone sitting on a bench. That's what they are there for....sitting on. Hardly an unusual activity. Maybe timid street photographers like the idea that their target is sitting so is unlikely to challenge them.

3. Old people. One day we will all be old, and look tired/confused. Just because someone is old, doesn't make them an interesting subject.

4. People talking on mobiles. Maybe 20 years ago but now.....really?

5. Street traders and street artists. I'm lumping these together as they're both a common sight of people just making a living on the street. They are everywhere and not generally very interesting.

Of course, the above can be cumulative... I can imagine faux street photographers wetting themselves at the black and white conversion they have planned of that old woman texting while sitting on a bench next to a veg stall.
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Can you list a few that are left :)
 
People, that's where I've been going wrong.

I got a really nice one of the speed bump the other day ;)
 
And your list of non-clichéd 'street' shots would include... :shrug:
 
Just deleted my shots of old people sitting on benches watching photographers shooting pics of street clowns and mime artistes while a beggar taps up the tourist eating ice cream in clusters.

Have kept the one of the gold topped mail box.........
 
Steve said:
Maybe there is no such thing as an original idea. But street photography seems to rely on cliches more than any other genre of photography. Either that or I've just been unlucky to see the same repetitive dross on flickr masquerading as street photography
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Could it be that street photography is a very accessible genre (unless you live in the DPRK :lol:) and in being an accessible genre it attracts a lot of people... a lot of people with "presently under developed photography skills".

When you first get the photography bug you find some list of stuff to do and produce a massive pile of basically, beginners stuff. I'm sure most of us have (if we haven't deleted them) a flickr account with these early beginnings in it...

1) A photo of the moon

2) light trails from a motorway bridge

3) something macro (a bee on a flower probably)

4) a sunset

5) milky seawater over a groyne.

6) Random B&W photos of people in the local town

And so on...

I'm sure one or more of the endlessly repeated photography magazines has this "beginners bucket list" printed every month.
 
Given that photography is such a broad field and an extremely old one and that archiving over the next decade with the advent of the Internet means im pretty sure theirs not much left that hasn't been done to death. In any field of photography the subjects change however the style rarely does and unless your getting paid too produce an image of x,y or z then most photography is enjoyment and until YOU have captured it it's irrelevant if it's been done or the style looks different.

Take a picture of a swan for example end of the day you can PP it to death but every photo you have taken or will take will have been done and no doubt better than what you have captured.

The cynic in me will state that if you try and take candid street photos of people now your must be a p**** or a Perve so the aforementioned subjects are probably the safest ;)
 
I think the OP suggesting we do something that's not commonly done? Perhaps telephoto shot of children from a bush? :shrug:









:exit::lol:
 
Medical and forensic? I'm sure there are loads of standard shots in both those genres too but we'll (hopefully) never see enough of them for them to become clichés to us!
 
They're what non-photographers want and expect to see, it's only natural to repeat behaviour that wins praise, no matter how artistic you think you are.

It's good to think different and to be different, but it's the cliches that draw people in.
 
It's another list of reasons to be negative about photography, isn't it? Sadly, there seems to be a lot of this about. Rather than encouraging people to have a go at whatever they fancy, they get told it's clichéd, old hat, sooo last year, darling!

If you see a shot you like, have a go at it yourself. Mono shots of people sitting on benches can be great. Milky waterfalls require a knowledge of a tricky technique, and everyone needs to have a go regardless of how many times it's been done; leaning how to use slow shutter is a skill everyone who is serious about photography must have in their toolkit. Same for spot colour. It's a useful thing to know if you want to learn editing - and if you are serious about your photography, you have to learn to edit properly.

So ignore the sneery knockers. Get out and shoot whatever you fancy.

This message was brought to you by the Campaign For Being Positive About Photography. Which I have just invented. All welcome to join. ;)

 
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jon ryan said:
It's another list of reasons to be negative about photography, isn't it? Sadly, there seems to be a lot of this about. Rather than encouraging people to have a go at whatever they fancy, they get told it's clichéd, old hat, sooo last year, darling!

If you see a shot you like, have a go at it yourself. Mono shots of people sitting on benches can be great. Milky waterfalls require a knowledge of a tricky technique, and everyone needs to have a go regardless of how many times it's been done; leaning how to use slow shutter is a skill everyone who is serious about photography must have in their toolkit. Same for spot colour. It's a useful thing to know if you want to learn editing - and if you are serious about your photography, you have to learn to edit properly.

So ignore the sneery knockers. Get out and shoot whatever you fancy.

This message was brought to you by the Campaign For Being Positive About Photography. Which I have just invented. All welcome to join. ;)

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Nicely put.
 
Trent Parke from Magnum has amazing examples of street photography execution. I'm not saying that's what street photography should be, I'm just saying his approach is different.

I for one love the simplistic/minimal approach
 
jon ryan said:
It's another list of reasons to be negative about photography, isn't it? Sadly, there seems to be a lot of this about. Rather than encouraging people to have a go at whatever they fancy, they get told it's clichéd, old hat, sooo last year, darling!

If you see a shot you like, have a go at it yourself. Mono shots of people sitting on benches can be great. Milky waterfalls require a knowledge of a tricky technique, and everyone needs to have a go regardless of how many times it's been done; leaning how to use slow shutter is a skill everyone who is serious about photography must have in their toolkit. Same for spot colour. It's a useful thing to know if you want to learn editing - and if you are serious about your photography, you have to learn to edit properly.

So ignore the sneery knockers. Get out and shoot whatever you fancy.

This message was brought to you by the Campaign For Being Positive About Photography. Which I have just invented. All welcome to join. ;)

Click to expand...

Good point Jon,

It was mean't to be a bit tongue in cheek, and wasn't intended to put people off trying new things.

Think it was rallying against some of the flickr groups I looked at where (if you believe the comments left) the photos were pure genius perfection. But all I was seeing was formulaic and repetitive.

Maybe it should have been more a swipe at that flickr culture rather than the nature of the photographs.
 
Steve said:
Good point Jon,

It was mean't to be a bit tongue in cheek, and wasn't intended to put people off trying new things.

Think it was rallying against some of the flickr groups I looked at where (if you believe the comments left) the photos were pure genius perfection. But all I was seeing was formulaic and repetitive.

Maybe it should have been more a swipe at that flickr culture rather than the nature of the photographs.
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I suppose horrid framing and obvious bad technique presented as anything otherwise does irk, but it does so regardless of the subject matter.
 
jon ryan said:
This message was brought to you by the Campaign For Being Positive About Photography. Which I have just invented. All welcome to join. ;)
Click to expand...

This also makes a very catchy acronym that rolls off the tongue, though not sure about the last syllable.
 
jon ryan said:
And your list of non-clichéd 'street' shots would include... :shrug:
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Pretty much anything by Garry Winogrand?




1) A photo of the moon... CHECK (but I'm also an astronomer)

2) light trails from a motorway bridge - nope

3) something macro (a bee on a flower probably) Nope. I'm excluding some semi-macro work I once did as a commercial job... merely doing what I was paid to do.

4) a sunset - nope... not unless it was a background for something else.

5) milky seawater over a groyne. - nope.. never... I don't even know what a groyne is.

6) Random B&W photos of people in the local town - afraid not.


I'm not so sure having something negative to say about clichéd images is discouraging anyone from photography though.... just from taking clichés. You don't have to take clichéd images to learn, and it's not as if it's essential to being a beginner or anything. You can avoid them from the get go if you're made to realise that they are just tired clichés.
 
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Steve said:
Maybe there is no such thing as an original idea. But street photography seems to rely on cliches more than any other genre of photography. Either that or I've just been unlucky to see the same repetitive dross on flickr masquerading as street photography.

So here are my top five repeated street photograpy cliches.

1. Black and white conversions. Not just black and white, but with unfeasibly large grain that makes the photo look like a photocopy of a newspaper picture from the 1980s.

2. Someone sitting on a bench. That's what they are there for....sitting on. Hardly an unusual activity. Maybe timid street photographers like the idea that their target is sitting so is unlikely to challenge them.

3. Old people. One day we will all be old, and look tired/confused. Just because someone is old, doesn't make them an interesting subject.

4. People talking on mobiles. Maybe 20 years ago but now.....really?

5. Street traders and street artists. I'm lumping these together as they're both a common sight of people just making a living on the street. They are everywhere and not generally very interesting.

Of course, the above can be cumulative... I can imagine faux street photographers wetting themselves at the black and white conversion they have planned of that old woman texting while sitting on a bench next to a veg stall.
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And your problem is?
 
Pookeyhead said:
Pretty much anything by Garry Winogrand?




1) A photo of the moon... CHECK (but I'm also an astronomer)

2) light trails from a motorway bridge - nope

3) something macro (a bee on a flower probably) Nope. I'm excluding some semi-macro work I once did as a commercial job... merely doing what I was paid to do.

4) a sunset - nope... not unless it was a background for something else.

5) milky seawater over a groyne. - nope.. never... I don't even know what a groyne is.

6) Random B&W photos of people in the local town - afraid not.


I'm not so sure having something negative to say about clichéd images is discouraging anyone from photography though.... just from taking clichés. You don't have to take clichéd images to learn, and it's not as if it's essential to being a beginner or anything. You can avoid them from the get go if you're made to realise that they are just tired clichés.
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Who cares what you do or don't have in your portfolio. That's the point, that photography is about enjoyment and personal taste, rather than avoiding cliched photos that may amuse/annoy elitist professionals or industry insiders.
 
I think it was Sontag who claimed that everything has been photographed, so it's inevitable that subjects will be repeated. The entire history of representational painting has been repeating itself when it comes to subjects. .

The Ongoing Moment, which I've just finished reading, is all about how the same subjects have been revisited time after time by new waves of photographers. Maybe some subjects naturally draw people to photograph them?

Make your own pictures of whatever you want. Subjects are not clichés in themselves, your photos will only be trite if they ape those which have been made before.

Winogrand was a one-ff, but he photographed people on a bench too.
 
Actually, I've said before, don't let the whole "its got to be original" strangle you, none of it is original, get over it and keep clicking.

Too many people *imagine* they are original. Just because you are new, doesn't mean you bring a whole new perspective, it just means you haven't seen enough photos yet!
 
Maybe my cliched street photo subject sums it up ...


_RJB1412_zps443953b0.jpg
 
Quite a few missing SP cliches here, I'd add:

-A person walking past or sitting in front of a large advertising poster
-A person lit by a shaft of sunlight in an otherwise dark area
-A person photographing something or someone else
-A person sitting in the window of a cafe
-A person sitting or standing at a bus stop

I guess the trouble is you could create a list off all possible SP cliches, and then suddenly realise that there is nothing that is not cliche in some way.
 
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What do you expect people to do when they go out with camera in the street, you capture what is there and not much of it is original (although the people and objects are different)
Should they be looking at a list before taking a shot to ensure they don't take a cliched shot?
 
Seeing how well you can emulate existing popular themes is an excellent way of testing your skills. Think of classical musicians. There is very little that's original in that genre, it's all about showing that you understand, and have learned, the technique of the masters before you reinterpret it your own way. There's a good thread going on elsewhere about aesthetic vs technical skills. You need a firm understanding of the technical before you can create your own aesthetic.
 
jon ryan said:
Seeing how well you can emulate existing popular themes is an excellent way of testing your skills......


..........it's all about showing that you understand, and have learned, the technique of the masters before you reinterpret it your own way.
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Exactly.... look at Winogrand, Bresson and Meyrowitz.. and learn how to avoid the clichés.
 
What I've concluded from this thread so far from the list of cliches;

- If you take photos in the street no matter what it looks like, it's a cliche. So don't do street photography as people will be upset
 
I think that being unique for the sake of being unique is the biggest cliche of all, 'learning' to avoid doing something you enjoy just to avoid a cliche is utterly pretentious. As mentioned earlier, there's very little if anything now that is truly unique.
 
erictearle said:
What I've concluded from this thread so far from the list of cliches;

- If you take photos in the street no matter what it looks like, it's a cliche. So don't do street photography as people will be upset
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Or alternatively, do more street photography as those are the people worth upsetting...
 
jon ryan said:
Seeing how well you can emulate existing popular themes is an excellent way of testing your skills. Think of classical musicians. There is very little that's original in that genre, it's all about showing that you understand, and have learned, the technique of the masters before you reinterpret it your own way. There's a good thread going on elsewhere about aesthetic vs technical skills. You need a firm understanding of the technical before you can create your own aesthetic.
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This!

*heads off to flickr to delete all my cliche shots, decides quickest way to do that is to delete flickr account... :P *
 
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