Pixiq

A cliché or cliche … is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, rendering it a stereotype, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel.

Clichés are things that were once created as a good idea, but have been so over used as to become meaningless.

We are all guilty of shooting cliché imagery. Sometimes we just can't help ourselves. The cliche seems to have been ingrained into our DNA. It somehow becomes implanted in our memory and therefore we are attracted to them. They seem like a good idea. We shoot many of them simply because they are in fact beautiful. A waterfall or a sunset is nothing short of marvelous. The world is amazingly beautiful. However, the fact that so many images have been made of them makes most of them less original than creative.

Difficult as it may be, the idea in photography as in language is to at least try to avoid the cliché.

When approaching a subject, you might consider the possibility that it might become a cliché. The goal is to rise above the stereotype. One way to do that is to make stereotype the subject of your work. A photographer who uses cliché and stereotype well in her work is Cindy Sherman. Her works are an attack on the stereotype. In her case, she makes us consider certain stereotypes as being demeaning.

"Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, many of her photo-series, like the 1981 Centerfolds, call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television and magazines.

 Cindy Sherman… is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. … Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has sought to raise challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art." - Source - Wikipedia

Cliché as subject of your work is a completely different concept that I hope to cover as another topic for another post.

Novelty done twice is no longer novel.

What is a cliché? Anything that has been overused in art or language is considered as cliché. Examples include such imagery as: A bowl full of cherries, wedding pictures done in a traditional manner, semi-naked girls or muscle guys on the beach, glamour poses, the hand shake, Niagara Falls, most waterfalls, the politician kissing the baby, most sunsets, tourist shots and so on.

Advertising relies on the cliché as a way to grab attention and as a device to instantly communicate a concept in order to sell whatever they want to sell us. Examples might be: an executive driving a Lexus, the Mona Lisa as the symbol for all art, a gallery or museum as symbol for quality, a woman using a vacuum cleaner, dishwasher or somewhere in the kitchen. More explicit use of cliché might include sexual innuendoes and sexist parody. There are many others. In advertising, the cliché is most often a stereotype.

Generally, the cliché reduces the original or novel idea into something crass, tiresome, mundane, meaningless or insignificant.

Cliché and stereotype can be dangerous territory for any artist. The immediate effect can be seen as timeworn, commonplace, predictable, unoriginal, cheesy, boring and so on. These are not descriptions most artist's care to impart.

I believe that the dangers of cliché can be circumvented if we are aware of its presence. Although it is difficult to avoid the cliché in art or photography, it is possible to transform a cliché into something that rises above what we expect. What I mean by this is that we can still shoot subjects that fall into the area of cliché by capturing those subjects in some kind of unique way. How that is done depends on the subject, timing, composition, the photographer’s intent and a number of other factors.

Ultimately, it is the photographer who needs to recognize the potential of a particular moment at least in part, to avoid typical representations and the likelihood of producing uninspired and unimaginative photographs.

Soon, I hope to discuss another important photographic term- The Metaphor.

NOTICE:    THIS POSTING AS WELL AS ALL PHOTOGRAPHS AND GALLERY IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT - © JOHN NEEL AND ARE NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY PUPOSE WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE WRITER, THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND/OR PIXIQ. THE IDEAS EXPRESSED ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE AUTHOR.

Please read more of my posts regarding Digital and Analog Photography on Pixiq

And buy my new book -

"Rethinking Digital Photography - Making & Using Traditional & Contemporary Photo Tools"