Liminal Space vs Staged Photography

リミナル・スペース / 演出写真

Liminal Space comes from Internet Aesthetics and Staged Photography from Photographic Genres. One is aesthetic and the other technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Liminal Space

Liminal Space — 無人のショッピングセンター（CC BY-SA 4.0）Liminal Space — モールの通路（CC BY 4.0）Liminal Space — 深夜の商業施設（CC BY-SA 4.0）

Photographs transitional spaces empty when people ought to be in them, drawing out déjà vu, loneliness and the sense that time has stopped.

Staged Photography

Staged Photography — キャメロン『リア王と三人の娘』1872 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Staged Photography — F・ホランド・デイによる演出肖像 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainStaged Photography — キャメロン『ミューズのささやき』1865 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Composes scene, figure, props and light before the shutter, shaking the very premise that photographs record reality.

Liminal SpaceStaged Photography
Eralate-2010s–19th century– / 1970s revival
FamilyInternet AestheticsPhotographic Genres
KindAestheticTechnique
CuesEmpty corridors / Fluorescent light / Dated interiors / Public space after midnightConstructed scenes / Props / Cinematic lighting / Deliberate artificiality
Best used forPhotographing empty facilities at night to show that time has stopped · Choosing settings for work about waiting and passing throughRestaging the conventions of advertising or news images to cast doubt on them · Building a story into one frame meant for exhibition, not for record
TypeKeep the existing wayfinding signs and add no new letteringMake the text in the frame as a prop rather than borrowing a typeface
CompositionShoot corridors head on in one point perspective with nobody presentFix gaze and hand positions in advance and block the frame like a painting
MaterialGreenish fluorescent white, dated flooring, damp reflections, weak shadowsBuilt sets or models, cinematic lighting, large format shot and printed big
CautionThe more unusual the building, the less it touches memory, because the sense of having been here only arrives in ordinary places everyone has passed through.Staging that only imitates a natural record leaves the assumption that photographs record reality untouched, and the whole reason for constructing the scene disappears.

Put these two together

Internet Aesthetics ／ Photographic Genres

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