The other half of my point was that, today, you also need gimmickry to stay on top. Annie Liebovitz provides a couple of good examples of that last year (not the least of which was the entire book "Women"). She had a number of her photos chosen as year's best (in some compilation whose name I can't recall right now).(posted 8694 days ago)In it, she has a terrific picture of a champion bicycle racer (I think the American Tour de France champion), nude. However, in the text that accompanies the picture he points out that when he arrived, she wanted him originally to do a simple pose with his hair wet and without his shirt. When he mentioned that he had just come from another shoot where the photographer had done exactly that pose, Annie said, "Well, we've got to do something completely different. Take off all your clothes." And the rest, as they say, was history.
In the same compilation her picture of the cast of the show Goodfellas arrayed as participants of the Last Supper was also selected. It cost over $60,000 to shoot. Not only did it look pretty cheesy, but I'm not even religious and I found it both corny and insulting (though I think it could have been handled in a creative and interesting manner).
Other examples that comes to mind are the photographer who does the "Big Head" series and the one who does the books of nudes of average people (LA Nudes, I think is one). But for sheer gimmickry (and media manipulation), I think the following story about Robert Rauschenberg's new work illustrates that best: http://www.foxnews.com/etcetera/art/062800_rauschenberg.sml?refer=isyn d