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 New Color Photography: Tilt off horizontal and push the subject toward an edge
- Type
- Set in New Color Photography's manner (Captions carry only place and year, never explanation), 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 New Color Photography's material (Let one red run dense while the rest stays faded); 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
- Both belong to Photography Movements, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- New Color Photography Raising saturation gets mistaken for the style, so the choice of subject goes unexamined and the pictures end up loud but with no reason to look.
- 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 New Color Photography (Style, 1976–) and its accent from New Topographics (Style, 1975–). Structural cues: Nameless everyday scenes; Dye-transfer saturation; Casual oblique composition; The intensity of red. Accent cues, used sparingly: Empty suburbs; Frontality; Dry color; Man-altered landscape. Composition: Tilt off horizontal and push the subject toward an edge. Type and lettering: Captions carry only place and year, never explanation. Let one material quality come from the second style: Even overcast light, deep focus, processing that never lifts saturation.. Mood: Intimacy, 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
- New Color Photography 1976– / Style / Photography Movements
The art photography of the everyday in color, legitimized by Eggleston's MoMA show. Dye-transfer density gave banal scenes gravity and overturned the rule that color was vulgar.
- 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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