20th Nov - Photography without cliches

​Jason Row, a professional photographer, was warmly welcomed to CCC. Originally from London, Jason explained that he and his Ukrainian wife had been living in Odessa for some years when the Russian invasion of Ukraine took place on 24th February 2022. They had quickly developed and executed an evacuation plan which saw them move to a new home in the north-east of England. Jason had been a professional photographer for many years, and he had continued this career from his new home. Jason, whose many YouTube videos about photography can easily be accessed, described himself primarily as a landscape travel stock photographer and videographer who had started out photographing on cruise ships (which is where he had met his wife).

​Jason explained that most photographers are drawn to standard "cliched" images of scenes. As an example, he showed us a high-quality image he had taken after waiting, and being jostled by many other photographers, for 5 hours at a well-known vantage point in Bruges. However, he also showed us other images he had taken in Bruges of much less well known scenes, which he contended were better, more interesting and more thought-provoking images. Jason emphasised that he was not arguing that the cliched shots should not be taken or that they were not good photographs. As he said, in order to understand a cliche, you first needed to experience it. His argument is that your photographic experiences and journey should not end there, and that you can enrich the experiences and insights of yourself and your viewers by looking beyond the cliches.  
 
Jason stated that most people today viewed photographs on social media where the time given to each image is fleeting. This is one of the factors which had driven cliched images. It is the cliched photographs which receive the most "likes". For similar reasons, he gave examples of other types of images which had become tropes. He showed us images using lens crystal balls and images of reflections in rain puddles. Again, Jason did not argue that there was anything wrong with such shots, or that they should not be taken, but that they can be overdone and so become cliches or tropes. 
 
We were shown images Jason had taken in Durham, London and Newcastle which were not cliches. Sometimes these images were quite recognisable but were taken from a different perspective or homed in on details from the location which told a story, and perhaps raised questions in the viewers mind, without being cliches. As Jason said, a photographer is on to something if their photograph tells a story or provokes the viewer's imagination. 
 
 The presentation was well constructed and delivered and included some nice touches of humour. Our members very much appreciated Jason's talk and observed that much depended on why the photographer was producing the image and who they considered the audience or the viewer to be. Perhaps images are sometimes taken only, or primarily, for the photographer. Jason's talk challenged us to give some serious thought to these matters and to consider whether we sometimes want to escape the cliches and tropes and to instead take a more subtle, considered and thought-provoking approach.
 
Ray Barnes
CCC Programme Secretary