Avoiding the cliched travel image

[mike_bonsall]

Recently I’ve been looking at a number of galleries on pbase containing some incredible images of far-off lands – India, China etc. After looking at these galleries I’ve then taken a look at other galleries by the same photographers that have focused on places closer to home.

In one example the photographer had put together a gallery of images taken in London. What initially surprised me was that practically every image was a well-worn cliché – Big Ben, red double-decker buses, black cabs etc. I thought, how can the same photographer who has taken so many fascinating and original pictures of India for example have also taken so many average and predictable shots of London?

Then I started thinking, what would someone from India think of the images taken of his or her country? The shots of religious ceremonies, street children, ‘local’ transport and exotic food, would they not find them terribly clichéd and predictable?

Maybe they’d really like the shots of Big Ben and the Tower of London though!

[alangrant]

Interesting question. I suppose we need a Martian to look at a selection of travel photographs taken by people from a variety of different countries and adjudicate which ones are "really" interesting and which ones are only interesting depending on the where the viewer happens to come from. (Of course, I am assuming here that Mars doesn't coincidentally look exactly like, say, Guernsey).

I have been thinking along the same lines especially in the context of "people" photos. Sometimes I get asked why there are not many photos of people in my travel galleries. The truthful answer is that I am just not very good at people photos. But I think it is also that I would find it very odd if a foreign tourist approached me as I go about my daily business in Dublin and asked to take a photo of me. So I have mixed feelings about taking pictures of people in other countries just because they might look "exotic" to me.

By the way - good list of other photographers on your profile page, I will be looking at all of them in more detail.

[aisassipbase]

I think there is quite a bit of truth on the observation that photographs of "never seen places" do not look trite or cliche (for someone who has never seen the place/scene in question before).
The issue for the "travel photographer" is that she/he herself/himself becomes the "innocent eyes", and the photographic instinct takes over and the photographer goes for the "best" view or angle and thus, ends up taking the "typical" cliched picture....which in itself, it is not necessarily a bad thing. These type of pictures may not be the most "original", but if well taken, they are a good record of what the traveler sees and enjoys.

I personally have two ways to deal with this issue:

1) When I arrive at a major tourist destination, before I start shooting, I pay a visit to a gift/tourist shop and browse the postcard stand. This will give an idea on the most photographed places and angles.

2) I go off the beaten path. I wander off to the "wrong side of the tracks", visit the places where the locals actually live, eat and hangout.

Same as -alangrant- I do not like people in my travel photographs. I go to sometimes painful lengths to avoid the presence of people in my travel photographs. I think this is due to my emphasis in architecture and landscape photography.
Lately, I have been making an effort to capture certain cultural aspects of places that can be only recorded by photographing people.

[mreichel]

Nice question, really interested. I am guilty myself of this, in fact, I rarely even take pictures at home and if I do, lets say in NYC, i take pictures of the Empire State building and other cliché landmarks. I think there is a different mindset when we're at home verses in other lands. At home I look for the abstract within cliché places, like finding interesting angles, framing, and composition. Abroad these things just seem to pop out a lot more, as I am one hundred times more observant away than at home of things like cars, roads, buildings, architecture, people, habits, chores, families... Home just becomes such a mundane concept, whereas the outside world, the world away from our mundane existences becomes a place of fascination, exploration and observation.

[opus1]

http://www.pbase.com/opus1/galleries