Overdone Cliche Subjects

[paulr]

I take it you mean you make your images for market then.

No, never.

Are you really suggesting that the only two reasons for making something are self indulgence or money?

and I thought I had a grim view of the world ...

[Michael Daily]

Photography shouldn't be about what you see, but about how you see. My photographs aren't about the subject, they're about me. And I'm not a cliche.

Well put! Photographs tell more to the intelligent observer about the photographer than they do about the things photographed. It is a way of sharing ideas, not things, in much the same way that conversation is not about words.
Michael

[kjsphotography]

I really do not think anything is cliché in terms of subject matter. I believe the approach of capturing the subject is what tends to be cliché. If more time were spent trying to find your vision within the subject at hand, the cliché subject matter would disappear and new and fresh concepts would start to be the norm.

I think this is the danger in studying other photographer as one start to shoot as their heroes do, therefore creating work that is duplicate/cliché in nature.

Just my two cents

[robc]

No, never.

Are you really suggesting that the only two reasons for making something are self indulgence or money?

and I thought I had a grim view of the world ...

what I mean by self indulgence is making images for yourself and not to suit the market. i.e. you don't let market forces drive your image making process. For example, it is common for galleries to only accept your work if they think it will sell and many artists do work to suit the galleries and not themselves. It's called selling your soul. Me, I prefer to be self indulgent and make the images I want to make. If they sell that's fine. If not, that's also fine but I don't make a living out of my images. If I were a commercial photographer I might think differently, but that wouldn't alter the fact that I was driven by someone elses choices and not my own.

Is it any wonder that there are so many cliched images when so many people are making them because they sell? Or at least they appear to since so many people have them up for sale on the web.

So what drives your image making? A desire to be famous, a desire to make money, or something really self indulgent like taking a great deal of personal satisfaction out of just doing it and perhaps making something of great beauty?