With the slow return of travel comes the cliche travel photos that clogged our Instagram feeds prior to the pandemic. You know the ones: someone propping up the Leaning Tower of Pisa with their finger, or a group of guys crossing Abbey Road, or the classic buddy pose with a Buckingham Palace guard who definitely doesn’t want to strangle you.
Like the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden, cliche travel photos are both tempting and appealing (they became cliches for a reason, after all). Yet the tired repetition of the same poses and subject matter has nearly made travel photography itself a cliche.