My social media is geared towards photography, and after looking at a lot of it, I’ve realised that there are some themes which are so over-done that it’s very, very unusual to see an original, interesting or different take on them. Few examples:
Sunrises / sunsets. I mean, there must be hundreds of thousands of these taken every day, and most people seem to think that “there’s no such thing as too much saturation”. Genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw one that made me stop and look at it and think “this photographer has managed to make this stand out”, other than in the wrong way.
Long exposure night shots. Stopped being interesting after about the 5th one with the whirly stars and single tree. Similarly, long exposures of cars with the trailing lines. Last time I saw that done well was by an entire team who were using the best medium format digital cameras of the era, AND a drone. They put a ton of effort into it and it was actually pretty awesome. But that’s very much the exception.
Conversely, I still see the odd portrait which manages to stand out, be it as a result of exceptional composition, clever lighting, good posing, unusual props or background, etc.
What are the themes that you think are getting harder and harder to do with any level of novelty?
There’s very little that hasn’t been done, and been done well.
Shifting gears and creating images that you yourself enjoy is far more rewarding that chasing recognition online. If that recognition comes, cool. If not, no biggie.
I’ve been so much happier since I stopped posting on social media and focused on darkroom work and printing. Watching people view your work or having someone want to buy it is so much more rewarding than shouting into the void that is social media. I’m not trying to make a living off of photography so there’s no need to subject my work to the uncaring algorithms.