cliche in landscape photography

[John Smith]

Thinking about the situation, perhaps it is too bad Fatali didn't knock Delicate Arch down in the process of his nighttime escapades. Not that I condone the des truction of natural beauty, but at least we'd stop seeing all those endless and trite, repetitive damn pictures of the thing, which has been so over photographe r it's ridiculous - enough is enough!. Maybe photographers would have to dig re al deep and come up with enough imagination to shoot something different ... but probably not. No doubt we'd just see more of the same worn out, tired, cliche s pots like halfdome and the Tetons. I sincerely believe that LF landscape photog raphy would be dead without the Nat. Parks and their in-your-face, kodak moment scenery, such is the lack of imagination and creativity (not to mention the comp lete lack of concern over the on-going destruction of the non-Icon scenery).

I am depressed ...

H

[David R Munson]

Maybe we should get rid of all the corn lillies, too.

[chris jordan]

I agree that folks could generally be much more creative in their image making process. I think it usually comes back to "how" versus "what" you photograph. As for the Nat. Park icons, don't knock them down, just harass the photographers!

Chris www.jordanphoto.com

[Wilhelm]

I went to Yosemite last year for the first time. It is spectacular, and I'm glad that I had the inspiration of AA and Watkins, and even the street vendors of San Francisco with their color post cards of the Valley Overlook. Yes, I made my copies of the famous AA scenes (none of them nearly as good as his), but I also made my own kind of pictures: people relating to the landscape. A disabled woman in a wheelchair near the base of the falls while in the distance a group of teenagers are too busy with themselves to appreciate the beauty and irony. A guided tour stretching across the fields beneath Cathedral Rocks, looking more like a column of ants than human subjects. I await the opportunity to return to Yosemite, and hope to get to the Arches some day. Landscape photos don't have to be imitative, or even static.

[Anthony J. Kohler]

The same point can be made about any landscape site which is, shall we say (no pun intended) 'overexposed.' I live about two miles from Cathedral Rock, purportedly the most-photographed spot in Arizona. The number of similar to even almost-identical photographs of it around town is staggering.

But look at these spots as a challenge, not a problem. Some of these sites are so accessible, so publicized and so photographed that everybody knows of them - but can you make a photograph of that site which is DIFFERENT? I cannot imagine any site which has been photographed so much, in so many ways, that there is no vision, no view, left to get onto film. Sure, it is not easy or simple, especially when you don't have a lot of time to spend at any given spot. My pictures of Half Dome look just like everybody else's. I've got pictures of Cathedral Rock that look just like everybody else's, too. But I can envision a photograph of Cathedral, at least, which will knock your eyes out, and I see that as a project, a goal, which I can work toward. If it were easy, would we love it so much? If we wanted easy, we'd all be hauling P&S cameras instead of our beloved monsters.

It's just my own opinion, admittedly, but I don't think that there is any subject so overdone that there is no 'new' way to see it, no 'new' way to photograph it - and by the same token, when you are new to LF, it is also a triumph of sorts to go to, say, Yosemite (as I did) and take a photo which looks enough like one of Adams' that you can say to yourself, "THAT'S how he did it." The only problem with retracing someone else's footsteps is if you consider doing only that to be good enough. It may not be an end - but it's a marvelous way to learn, and if it was good enough for someone that special to do, it certainly is good enough for you to learn from.

Tony

[Ellis Vener]

If you are depressed go see a therapist. If you don't like the cliches don't look at them. It isn't that photographers lack imagination, but that they lack insight or maybe they are just awed by the big & obvious scenes.

There are many terrific landscape photographers who don't make cliched commercial lanscape images: Mark Klett, Robert Adams, Jack Dykinga, Stephen Shore...

[Sandy Sorlien]

I once attended a workshop given by the film critic Roger Ebert. I will never forget when he told us "Subject matter is neutral. For a moviegoer to say something like 'I don't like foreign movies' or I don't like action pictures' are ignorant statements. What they really should be saying is, 'I don't like BAD action movies.'"

In other words, any subject or genre is neutral; if the photographer (or filmmaker) has something to say about it and says it well, then the work is good and will be meaningful to others.

On the other hand, here are a few iconic subjects that have become so associated with one photographer that you'd better be aware of that when working with that subject. Half Dome is perhaps the quintessential example.

I forget who the artists were, but some great pictures have been made on the subject of certain landforms vis-a-vis their iconic nature. Was it Len Jenshel who did the color picture of the woman in a scarf with Yellowstone Falls on it, standing in front of the Falls themselves? Was it Jerry Uelsmann who made "Full Dome?" Somebody correct me on these....

[ernie gec]

Ok: I'm in a quarrelsome mood & figure my philosophical rantings are as valid as the next guys.

I think A.A. had it wrong with his famous "the negative is the score, the print is the performance" analogy. Actually, the photographic subject is the score, & the final photograph is the performance. It is a distinction with a difference.

The great musical "scores" of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms continue to live on & provide listeners with emotional pleasure because they convey scale, excitement, proportion and melodic beauty at the highest level of human achievement. And yet these famous works are regularly tortured by amateurs, labored over by aspiring students & occasionally performed with insight by an accomplished few.

Does this mean that we ought to abandon these works for original or undiscovered genius? Should newness & originality be the test of musical validity?

I hope not.

The fact is, these landmark tourist traps are nature's equivalent to Mahler's grand symphonies. They are huge, dramatic exceptions to the more frequently flat(ish) & unevenful landscape of the rest of the planet. They draw tourbusses, not because A.A. "was here" but because everyone looking at them for the first time gasps in wonder & immediately thinks "I gotta get a picture of this."

But like the 6th grader sawing away on a violin, the majority efforts are feeble & weak. There aren't many Heifetz & Horowitz level "performers" amongst us. This doesn't reduce the depth or beauty of the visual "score." It doesn't mean that we should all abandon these sites & look for undiscoved beauty.

We continue to "play" the "greats" because they are aesthetically & emotionally satisfying. Even though I'll never stand at centre stage in XYZ music hall playing Mendelssohn's violin concerto, I can tell you that scraping away at that score, at home, on my violin, fills me with tremendous pleasure, and makes me listen in awe when I hear it performed by one of the greats. And when any of us has a go at Half Dome with our photographic instrument, we're not mindlessly following A.A. because we can't think of anything better to photograph (well, not always). We're lining up with our tripods because the vista out front is breathtakingly, stunningly beautiful. This is a "score" of unusual merit. It's why A.A. stood there, & countless thousands BEFORE him.

It's true that beauty is everywhere & we should look for it in places other than the usual spots. But lets not be surprised when 300 years from now violin students are still playing Mendelssohn & Beethoven & Bach.

I feel better.

[Kevin M Bourque]

Sandy -

Jerry Uelsmann just gave a talk here and he showed us a slide of "Full Dome". I laughed out loud! He also had one of a dolphin swimming in the Merced River. From his pictures, you would think he'd dress in black, smoke clove cigarettes and quote obscure philosophers. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he's clear- eyed, lively and non-pretentious.

Back to the topic, some scenes just demand that you take a picture, even if it's been done a million times. I don't have a problem with that; I've certainly done it myself. But, I reserve the right not to be impressed (especially if it's my own work)!

I doubt I could walk by Delicate Arch and not take a picture.

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

I agree with Ellis. Anyone and everyone who desires to make a photograph, as long as it has not been deemed illegal, should have that right to make that photograph, and to show it if they desire to do so. If seeing those photographs makes you depressed, I am sure your thereapist will simply tell you to quit looking at them. Kevin