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 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 New Color Photography's material (Let one red run dense while the rest stays faded); 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
- Roughly 88 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
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.
- 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 New Color Photography (Style, 1976–) and its accent from Snapshot Aesthetic (Style, 1888– / 1960s art adoption). Structural cues: Nameless everyday scenes; Dye-transfer saturation; Casual oblique composition; The intensity of red. Accent cues, used sparingly: Tilted framing; Subjects cut by the frame; Direct flash; Album intimacy. 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: Direct flash with its hard shadow, color left uncorrected. Mood: Intimacy, Calm, Rebellion, Nostalgia. 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
- 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.
- 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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