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 Instant Photography: Compose for the square and keep it to one or two people
- Type
- Set in Instant Photography's manner (Handwrite date and name in the white margin below), and let Snapshot Aesthetic's lettering (No type, or at most a scrawl on the back of a print) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Instant Photography's material (Build the development wait into the event and leave color drift alone); bring in exactly one thing from Snapshot Aesthetic (Direct flash with its hard shadow, color left uncorrected).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Instant Photography The style collapses into a white frame added in software, and the core of it, handing someone the only copy that exists, is lost.
- Snapshot Aesthetic The harder amateurism is staged, the more it shows, and the absence of real time spent with the subject becomes the only thing visible.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Instant Photography (Technique, 1948–) and its accent from Snapshot Aesthetic (Style, 1888– / 1960s art adoption). Structural cues: The white-bordered square; Tender drifting color; The wait for development; One-of-a-kind materiality. Accent cues, used sparingly: Tilted framing; Subjects cut by the frame; Direct flash; Album intimacy. Composition: Compose for the square and keep it to one or two people. Type and lettering: Handwrite date and name in the white margin below. Let one material quality come from the second style: Direct flash with its hard shadow, color left uncorrected. Mood: Intimacy, Play, Nostalgia, Rebellion. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. 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
- Instant Photography 1948– / Technique / Photographic Techniques
Polaroid made the picture appear on the spot. The white-bordered square, the soft color of chemical development and the fact that only one copy exists became a language of intimacy that outlived digital and carries on in Instax.
- Snapshot Aesthetic 1888– / 1960s art adoption / Style / Photographic Genres
An aesthetic that takes the failures of amateur photography since Kodak, the tilted horizon, the head cut off at the edge, the flatness of the flash, and claims them on purpose. The intimacy of the family album became a grammar for art photography from Winogrand to Goldin.
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