Can we avoid kitsch photography?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

IMO about the worst thing you can do when taking photos, unless you're a pro working to someone else's brief, is concern yourself with how a particular photo will be perceived or categorized while you're in the midst of doing your thing. Just do it. Shoot all the presumed clichés. Edit later. Maybe some of those "clichés" will turn out to have something else going on.

I like sunset (and sunrise) photos and could care less whether or not some folks view them as kitsch. But when photographing them I do tend to get bored with repetition. As of late I've been mostly leaving the sun itself out of such pics.

-Dave-

Amen!

[amolitor]

I don't worry about making copies or cliches any more, because I almost never press the button without a clear idea of what I'm trying to do. I fear failing to accomplish my goal, with tragically good justification.

If my goal is any good, then hitting it takes care of any cliche/copying issues.

[Tim Lookingbill]

Tim,

How much is only so much?

I framed that comment on composition within the relationship of limited amounts of elements that form negative and positive shapes within a frame that can register as a sunset. Like others have demonstrated there doesn't even have to be a bright round amber ball showing. But we also don't show flat, featureless gray frames and call that a foggy sunset though there are photographers and conceptual art painters that have pulled that off, some becoming famous for it.

There are other visual communication tools to consider to make something ordinary quite extraordinary that isn't even seen while tripping the shutter.

Another aspect is just sheer luck and being at the right place at the right time during magnificent looking weather patterns that usually occur just before a cold front. That awareness both in front of the camera and in post can only be realized by shooting quite a few sunsets in the Raw format during certain times of the year and bringing out glorious color combinations that weren't seen.

[GrahamBy]

Maybe the simplest advice is to do what you like, rather than what you think others will like.




It might not be good advice, mind :-)

[stamper]

Maybe the simplest advice is to do what you like, rather than what you think others will like.




It might not be good advice, mind :-)

Shoot to please yourself and if someone else likes what you do then that is a bonus. Personally speaking I like sunsets and sunrises and they are all different especially if you have good foreground interest.

[Paulo Bizarro]

As someone who shoots a lot at godlen/bue hours of the day, I like to take some photos of the astro body that provides such light, which is the sun. I don't care about what others think about the quality of such shots.

There is a live recording where Neil Young does an encore saying "here is some more trash for you" (Year of the Horse?). I will borrow from him and say "here is some more kitsch for you..."

[Chairman Bill]

Does this sort of thing count as kitsch? I didn't think so, but what do I know?

[PeterAit]

Let us be honest with ourselves. Who among us does NOT want to see it on black velvet?

I thought that black velvet was reserved for Elvis.

[MattBurt]

I thought that black velvet was reserved for Elvis.

Don't forget La Senora de Guadalupe!

[Isaac]

Does this sort of thing count as kitsch?

Depends what we mean by kitsch.

Maybe we don't mean kitsch at all, we just mean cliché ;-)

[Chairman Bill]

Ah, well cliché is something else entirely. I suppose that after a certain number of photographs have been taken, styles & formats repeat (inevitably), and soon evertything becomes a bit of a cliché.

Thing is, I don't know much about clichés, but I know what I like, and I don't give a rat's arse whether somone considers my stuff clichéd or not. And I suppose there's enough people of similar mind to make saying that a bit of a cliché too.

[Isaac]

… styles & formats repeat …

I recall reading about a photographer, on their first day at National Geographic, being told by a photo editor - I don't care if your photo is a cliché, as-long-as it's the best I've ever seen.

[Wim van Velzen]

I can't resist a good sunset, even if the topic is kitch-y. It is a bit like a glamour portrait: you know it is a person on his or her best and probably in day-to-day life they look less stunning.
For me, as long as it shows what that place can be in natural light - I am in.

[Tim Lookingbill]

If a photographer lives in one place and doesn't travel to exotic locations around the world there is more likely the chance all their sunsets are going to look pretty much the same if they don't go looking for sunsets that are different. OTOH there are photographers who have the luxury of traveling the world and shooting a series of sunsets in different locations and for some reason they manage to make them all look identical with same color schemes and compositions. Whose fault is that? The viewer for noticing this?

Kitschy is the definition of someone who communicates to the viewer they don't have a distinguishing eye. It doesn't matter if all their sunsets look the same as long as they look dazzling and technically perfect (commercial looking), but the viewer will pick up on this and not even spend 2 seconds looking at it before they move on to the next trillion or so sunsets they have at their disposal online.

Come on people, it's not rocket science. You either see something unique in what you're shooting or you don't. You can't fool the viewer.

[stamper]

If a photographer lives in one place and doesn't travel to exotic locations around the world there is more likely the chance all their sunsets are going to look pretty much the same if they don't go looking for sunsets that are different. OTOH there are photographers who have the luxury of traveling the world and shooting a series of sunsets in different locations and for some reason they manage to make them all look identical with same color schemes and compositions. Whose fault is that? The viewer for noticing this?

Kitschy is the definition of someone who communicates to the viewer they don't have a distinguishing eye. It doesn't matter if all their sunsets look the same as long as they look dazzling and technically perfect (commercial looking), but the viewer will pick up on this and not even spend 2 seconds looking at it before they move on to the next trillion or so sunsets they have at their disposal online.

Come on people, it's not rocket science. You either see something unique in what you're shooting or you don't. You can't fool the viewer.

How does one know it is unique if they haven't seen all of the others?

[Otto Phocus]

Ah, well cliché is something else entirely.

I wonder what the difference is and what the relationship is between Kitch and Cliche?

[amolitor]

Kitsch implies a lack of meaning and a certain prettiness.

Cliches may it may not have had meaning before they became cliches, but by the present any meaning has been wrung out. Cliches are often, but not always, pretty.

So cliche is, often, a way to produce kitsch.

[MattBurt]

Kitsch implies a lack of meaning and a certain prettiness.

Cliches may it may not have had meaning before they became cliches, but by the present any meaning has been wrung out. Cliches are often, but not always, pretty.

So cliche is, often, a way to produce kitsch.

There are a lot of non-pretty cliches too. Like ruin porn (think Detroit) or photos of the homeless just being homeless. It's hard to find subjects and perspectives that aren't cliche which I guess is what separates the really creative people from everyone else. But not being cliche also isn't necessarily good to my eyes either. There's a reason cliches become cliches; those subjects and techniques are popular.

[Paulo Bizarro]

How does one know it is unique if they haven't seen all of the others?

Exactly. For instance, I will probably never visit Utah, or Yosemite, so I hardly get tired of the photo-cliché-kitsch from those areas. If it has good quality, of course:)

[Isaac]

Cliches may it may not have had meaning before they became cliches, but by the present any meaning has been wrung out.

Meaning? To whom? In what context?

"cliché: an ​idea or ​expression that has been used too often and is often ​considered a ​sign of ​bad writing or ​old-fashioned ​thinking"