Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Cyanotype: Lead with the object's contour; keep generous blue around it
- Type
- Set in Cyanotype's manner (White or pale letters; add small classification labels), and let Photogram's lettering (For letters, lay cut stencils on the paper and leave them reversed) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Cyanotype's material (One deep blue and the paper's white; don't polish away the exposure marks); bring in exactly one thing from Photogram (Photo paper, lamp height, exposure time, distance controlling edge hardness).
- Colour
- Build on #0c3f7a, #2f6fa9, #ecebdc and admit one accent from #f0eee5, #73777a, #111315.
Where they fight
- Cyanotype and Photogram both belong to Photographic Techniques, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Cyanotype and Photogram are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
Caution
- Cyanotype A blue filter is not the technique. Understand contact image, exposure and support.
- Photogram This is not black and white abstraction in general. Merely arranging unusual objects records only shadows, while transparency and distance from the sensitized surface are what make the image.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Cyanotype (technique, 1842–) and their accent from Photogram (technique, 1830s– / avant-garde revival). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Cyanotype exists for: directly recording plants, materials and objects, or adding the trace of handwork to drawings and archives. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Cyanotype - Prussian blue - White object traces - Contact shadows - Chemical unevenness Composition: Lead with the object's contour; keep generous blue around it. Type and lettering: White or pale letters; add small classification labels. ## Accent comes from Photogram, used sparingly - Cameraless - Object contours - Reversed values - Contact and distance Let one material quality come from it: Photo paper, lamp height, exposure time, distance controlling edge hardness. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ecebdc, carry the structure in #2f6fa9 and #0c3f7a, and let a single accent come from #73777a. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: calm, technique, nostalgia, play. ## Where they fight - Cyanotype and Photogram both belong to Photographic Techniques, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. - Cyanotype and Photogram are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show. ## What goes wrong - Cyanotype: A blue filter is not the technique. Understand contact image, exposure and support. - Photogram: This is not black and white abstraction in general. Merely arranging unusual objects records only shadows, while transparency and distance from the sensitized surface are what make the image. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Cyanotype 1842– / Technique / Photographic Techniques
Fixes the outline of a light-struck object directly into deep blue, making record and lyric the same image.
- Photogram 1830s– / avant-garde revival / Technique / Photographic Techniques
No camera is involved. Objects laid on the sensitive surface and exposed to light turn contour, transparency and distance into the picture.
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