Photo clichés 101 | Scene Through the Lens
Fun to make and look at
Joe Elbert, prize winning former photo editor at the Miami Herald and Washington Post who led his department to four Pulitzer Prizes and many other awards, once said that newspaper pictures fall into four categories: informational, graphic, emotional and intimate.
The first kind are photos that show what somebody, something or some place looks like, and don’t offer much more than that basic visual info. The emotional photos are the ones that make a visceral connection with the viewer. Pictures that let us feel empathy for the people who have allowed the photographer to share a part of their lives. Of the most aspirational photos in his hierarchy, Elbert says, “I can’t give you a description of an intimate picture; it’s something that can be felt.”
The graphic pictures? You’re seeing a lot of them here. They are pictures that usually rely mainly on their composition. There is not much else happening. But they are fun to look at. And make.
The “reflection in a puddle” above definitely qualifies. I will confess to taking a similar photo lots of times. But I do pay attention to what I post here, and try not to repeat myself. Too often.
Last week I wrote about the history of the corner around my old newspaper building. This week I was near that same intersection again, covering a board meeting in the Philadelphia School District’s headquarters on North Broad Street. The same building where the Inquirer’s photo studio was once located.
I was reflecting once more on the history of the neighborhood while walking out of the school budget meeting, and I couldn’t help but notice the reflection on the sidewalk.
Other photo clichés you might see in this space? Yes, there have been a few over the years I have been posting photos here.
In April this weekly column will turn 25 (more on that here next week). That’s a lot shadows, silhouettes, juxtapositions, and yes, even other kinds of reflections. Sometimes I’ve including pigeons, umbrellas, hats or cigars. Occasionally a bicyclist or pedestrian might’ve appeared, passing through the frame, captured at a slow shutter speed to portray an illusion of motion. Oh, and maybe something anthropomorphic. But definitely no forced perspective pictures (Nope, I do not like those).
Most are scenes I’ve noticed, and shared, while working as a newspaper photographer on other assignments where I am striving to make those more intimate images, the ones “that can be felt.”
Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column