Video Of The Day: Photography Cliches

American designer, John Koenig, in a new series The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows which features newly coined names of emotions, has explained the meaning of the word “vemödalen” – it is embarrassment a photographer feels when realizing that a image or story is just a cliché.

Koenig made a video out of 450 cliché photos of different photographers; however in the narration he asked colleagues to not be afraid of cliché and continue to explore the world accepting the fact that there is nothing new under the sun.

“Imagine what the world would be like if every time we took a photo of something it left a visible outline of the photo frame around it. How many cities and coasts would look like bird’s nests. How many women would build up photographic haloes over time. The faces of kids and the backs of homeless people. How you’d find frames surrounding rare birds in the middle of nowhere, and give up birdwatching entirely. You’d have to see a beautiful sunset become scribbled over on the way down, as if it was a football replay. Visible frames would be the worst kind of pollution, and would drain most of the fun out of life—I think a lot of joy has the idea of discovery secretly buried in it somewhere,” says the creator of the video.