Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Aerial Photography: Point straight down, drop the horizon, read the ground as figure
- Type
- Set in Aerial Photography's manner (Always carry scale, north and date, set small in a corner), and let New Topographics's lettering (Captions carry place and date only, in one fixed form, with no comment.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Aerial Photography's material (Shoot when low sun draws relief, not in flat midday light); bring in exactly one thing from New Topographics (Even overcast light, deep focus, processing that never lifts saturation.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #d8d4c8, #8b897b, #4c4a44.
Where they fight
- Roughly 117 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Aerial Photography Reliance on pattern removes every clue to altitude and scale, and the picture stops telling anyone what is shown or how large it is.
- New Topographics Posing as neutral while choosing light and framing too carefully produces scenic photography in documentary clothes, and the change goes unread.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Aerial Photography (Style, 1858–) and its accent from New Topographics (Style, 1975–). Structural cues: The vertical view as figure; Terrain drawn by shadow; The gridded city; Scale without people. Accent cues, used sparingly: Empty suburbs; Frontality; Dry color; Man-altered landscape. Composition: Point straight down, drop the horizon, read the ground as figure. Type and lettering: Always carry scale, north and date, set small in a corner. Let one material quality come from the second style: Even overcast light, deep focus, processing that never lifts saturation.. Mood: Exhilaration, Technology, Calm, Rebellion, Trust. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #d8d4c8, #8b897b, #4c4a44. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Aerial Photography 1858– / Style / Photographic Genres
The view from above begun with Nadar's balloon: the vertical gaze that turns cities into figures, passing through survey and war into landscape-as-abstraction, and on to satellites and drones.
- New Topographics 1975– / Style / Photography Movements
Turns from grand natural scenery to the landscapes people have altered, recording suburbs, graded building sites and industrial zones without heat.
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