How to photograph an icon

How do you photograph an icon? What do I mean by an icon? I define an icon as something that is easily recognizable, that may be a person, place or thing. Whatever it is, when you see an image of it, you recognize it. I live close to the Canadian Rockies and they are easy to recognize; pristine turquoise lakes, jagged mountains, classic pictures of Banff. I tend to see a lot of images online by professionals and amateurs alike, but the problem I keep encountering is that the images are easy to recognize. While they are awe-inspiring, beautiful and well curated, we see Banff, we see the Rockies, there is no mystery, no allure to draw the viewer in to the image with wonder. Type in Banff or Rockies and you will find many images of the same mountain looking pretty much the same no matter the photographer. I understand that some people admire other photographers and use their photography as a template to bounce from and learn, but once you’ve learned, it’s time to move forward and find out who you are as a photographer. Here are some of my tips for photographing icons such as the Rockies.
1 - Find something that isn’t focussed on. I have a beautiful picture of Castle Mountain and so does pretty much every other photographer that photographs in the Rockies. Its a beautiful mountain, and while you may want to photograph something iconic like Castle Mountain, there are plenty of other beautiful mountains as well that don’t get the same attention. Find something that others walk by and miss.
2 - Zoom in or crop: Most of the time we see images that give the full picture: mountain, lake and trees, but find an angle or part of the view that you want to crop or zoom in on. What this does is abstract the image and gives it a sense of mystery. It also points the viewer to something that they may have missed while taking in that particular view. This is one of my essential go-tos, but it takes some time to get used to focussing on intimate details of the landscape.
3 - Remember that you’re making art not documenting. You’re not documenting every mountain in the Rockies most likely. You’re making art, it needs to stand apart from what others do. One of the things that we would talk about in art school when photographing was that when possible photograph so that its not easy to spot where in the world that photo was taken.