Photographic Cliche?

I posted this photo last week on an online forum thread about "Cliche." Someone had commented that, to his dismay, most people that look at his photos love his "cliche" shots and gloss over the ones that he, as a photographer, likes most.

Are photographs cliche because they are the ones that appeal to the general public? Is it because they use a formula that is proven and "successful?" Is it because they arouse in the viewer a paricular feeling, by association if nothing else, driven by advertising - postcards, calendars, travel magazines?

To the "original" photographers: How many photographs are truly original? How many times have you tried to emulate something you saw, and admired - in a photography book or online? A photograph by a master, or one in a friend's blog?

It is funny how photographers tend to like photos because of qualities invisible to "laymen." If it is only appreciated by other photographers, is it a good photo? If one had to be an artist to admire the Mona Lisa, it probably would not be in the Louvre.

Just some food for thought.