Iconic landscapes and the elephant in the room

Let me state firstly I'm not against the principle of photographing iconic locations, they provide a photographer with images of photogenic landscapes and serve admirably as field classrooms for learning the the nuances of natural lighting and composition. Indeed, commercial landscape photography workshop providers lean heavily on these iconic landscape photography views, as they offer sunrise or sunset potential and also tend to be fairly weather resilient i.e low altitude and easy access to a minibus parked up nearby for shelter until the weather passes.

Durdle Door ~ 1910.
Credit - British Geological Survey
Catalogue reference no P252615

Just how enduring the icons are, is becoming evident as historic photograph collections and literature are digitised and made available online, in many cases their photographic record can be traced back to at least the late 19th C. Physical confirmation of their photographic popularity languishes in second hand bookshops where the iconic images feature in classic Shell Guides, travel books, National Park guides, County guides etc. Captured by a variety of photographic formats.

Buachaille Etive Mor ~ 1896
Credit British Geological Survey
Catalogue reference no P000282

There's also sufficient iconic locations in the UK, differing weather conditions and seasons, to keep landscape photographers occupied for years, many have done so and equally as many seem happy to continue do so, with portfolios of iconic landscape images. In the past the exposure of these locations was limited to the printed medium, todays world of the internet, digital sensors and social media has irrecoverably changed all that. Images of iconic landscape locations have long passed saturation point a google search of buachaille etive mor or stob dearg reveals thousands of images.

Quiraing, Skye ~ 1896
 Credit - British Geological Survey
Catalogue reference no P234120

The elephant in the room is that whilst iconic images adorn many portfolios, there are some landscape photographers with reputations built upon the proven formula of the landscape portfolios, burgeoning with iconic landscapes and not just the UK icons, but also icons from other countries. Once the low hanging fruit iconic location images are stripped out from a portfolio, it is apparent just how anaemic some content becomes, except for - and perhaps unsurprisingly - images of iconic subject matter. Does this matter though? Well, it does raise some profoundly important questions, not least of which is how you define and rate originality and creativity.  It is an issue best explored in a separate blog post.