These are some definitions I'll be using in the near future. For my purposes here I will use the following rough meanings to talk about things which are strong visual elements in a photograph (or painting, or really any visual medium). There are probably better words for these things out there, but I don't know what they are.
Symbol - a visual element which stands in, for most viewers, for a larger idea. A 1950s era diner, a destitute mother, a cross, a swastika.
Mandate - a visual element which may or may not be symbolic, but which most viewers insist upon whether they know it or not. Attractive clouds in the sky over a landscape, for instance. Clapboard siding should be either unpainted, or white. Old farm equipment must be shown with grass grown up around it.
Cliche - a visual element that appears widely in photographs, but which carries no special symbolic weight for most, and which the view does not require in the same way they demand a "mandate". Moving water that is blurred by a long exposure is a cliche. The homeless man sitting on a curb is also a cliche, but could also be considered a symbol.
The idea of a symbol overlaps with the other two categories. A mandated visual element might also carry symbolic weight, and so on. The point is that a symbol carries a freight of largely pre-defined meaning, for most viewers.
Cliches and mandates do not really overlap, because they are defined in opposition to one another. A cliche, by definition, is not a mandate. If you like, you might consider a symbol something that carries meaning, and cliche/mandate to be a spectrum describing frequently occurring visual ideas. Both are things that are commonly done, mandates because viewers demand or like it, cliches typically because the photographer likes it.
Old farm equipment is always represented with grass grown up around it because it's a real pain and it's sometimes dangerous to mow close around old farm equipment. As me how I know this...
ReplyDelete