Boring Photographs, Is There Such A Thing?

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/Pontification/o_Boring_Photographs/a_Boring_Photographs.html' target='_blank'>http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/Pontification/o_Boring_Photographs/a_Boring_Photographs.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"One of the funniest photography-related books I've come across in the past few years is a very small, brown, plain-looking volume from Phaidon. It's called "Boring Postcards." Somehow, I think the German title, "Langweilige Postkarten" is even more evocative. It's a collection of meticulously grouped, carefully reproduced... boring postcards. Yet the parade of gas stations, diners, shopping malls, motorways, airports, and other extremely un-photogenic subjects often photographed without even a modicum of ambition, when presented as a collection, is incredibly funny."</i><br /><br />I have often go to showings of photographs at a gallery somewhere in the city and most of the times I am absolutely amazed by the skill or technique or subject matter or even the color combinations in the images shot by the artist. However, there are times when I wonder why certain images are classified as art, and why I even bothered coming. This is an interesting article that talks about boring images and whether such a thing truly exists. Do you guys find yourselves taking photographs of seemingly boring subject matter and then find that a particular shot came out to be particularly cool completely by fluke? And there are other times when you are looking at totally mundane shots that look uninspired individually, but look great when looked at as a collection (or collage). This is one of the few articles that I have seen that addresses this point. Anyways, I particularly a sentence from this article - "Photography is the art form that's best suited for us uncreative people."

[Mojo Jojo]

As photography is more a hobby then a profession for me I will be the first to admit that somethings that I think would be great often turn out to look pretty bad in the final result.

For me, that is where the joy of digital cameras comes in. I used to be worried about taking bad photos because of the cost to develop them, so much so that it would sap any whim I had right out of me and actually kept most of my shots pretty tame and boring.

Once I moved to digital and had the ability to delete bad shots at the cost of nothing more then a few watts of power from the battery I became liberated! Now I am not saying that this new found liberation made me a better photographer all of a sudden but at least it became fun again to take chances with my shots... like a worms view down a crowded street where forground was just peoples feet, or even different effects through shutter speed like people waiting for a bus...

Anyways... a good article indeed. I can only remember what a friend said, you won't get any better unless you get out there and take more. :)

[Jason Kravitz]

This is a valid argument, however I feel the author is simplifying it a bit. Sure there are thousands of people posting the same kinds of pictures to online galleries everywhere, yet each of them are learning, finding their niche and attempting to express themselves in different ways.

Perhaps the author is not inspired by photographing flower macros and quasi-artistic nudes, there are many other people who enjoy and appreciate finding a new way to represent these things. Every picture of the same flower might have a subtle difference that intrigues the photographer and viewer alike. There are many different types of photographs just as there are many different types of photographers.

I think his overall point is that you should continue to push yourself to show something more in your images whatever the subject matter. As someone relatively new to photography I think this is an excellent message to keep in mind. I agree that life is full of intriguing and interesting things that unfold on a daily basis but it's also important to remember that what some people find interesting and intriguing, other people might find boring :P