Lately I have seen a lot of trendy pictures on some social media that puzzle me. They use strange color pallets or funky shadow patterns lit through colandars and screens. They use tiny strings of fairy lights, or faces either covered with fruit or sprouting a flower from the mouth. These are all eye-catching the first time around, but they get old quickly. They have a bigger drawback as well.
After you see several photographers' takes on the same technique you realize they are all following a formula. There is no meaning they are trying to convey with these odd arrangements. We're seeing a design of fruit on a face, not a commentary on the fleeting nature of beauty. So the photographer loses out in two ways.
First, we have no reason to linger. No call to explore the message we are receiving by studying the work further, analyzing it for a philosophy. And second, anybody can imitate a technique. It happens often. If you check out photography forums, think about how many times you have seen a picture with the model stretching one arm back to the camera, holding the photographer's hand. This means that the original will be rapidly buried in an avalanche of imposters. We the audience are drowned in a sea of shallow lookalikes, giving us the impression that the art has nothing left to say.
The next time you take a picture for display, consider what inner portion of yourself you are revealing. If it is a portrait seek to reveal an inner portion of the subject.
And please don't stick a flower in their mouth.
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