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 New Objectivity Photography: Frontal, level, centered, with the same background every time
- Type
- Set in New Objectivity Photography's manner (No headlines, only the subject name and conditions in one fixed format), 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 Objectivity Photography's material (Deep depth of field, even overcast light, fine grained printing); bring in exactly one thing from New Topographics (Even overcast light, deep focus, processing that never lifts saturation).
- Colour
- Build on #e5e2da, #81817d, #242423 and admit one accent from #d8d4c8, #8b897b, #4c4a44.
Where they fight
- New Objectivity Photography and New Topographics both belong to Photography Movements, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- New Objectivity Photography One frame is no typology, and without matched conditions it ends as a pile of expressionless pictures. Do not trust the pose of objectivity, and read the bias that classification and viewpoint produce.
- 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
Produce four original images that take their structure from New Objectivity Photography (style, 1920s–1930s) and their accent from New Topographics (style, 1975–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing New Objectivity Photography exists for: photographing trades or buildings under one condition to make them comparable, or showing the detail of a product or a part precisely and without sentiment. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from New Objectivity Photography - Sharp focus - Frontality - Repetition and types - Material detail Composition: Frontal, level, centered, with the same background every time. Type and lettering: No headlines, only the subject name and conditions in one fixed format. ## Accent comes from New Topographics, used sparingly - Empty suburbs - Frontality - Dry color - Man-altered landscape Let one material quality come from it: Even overcast light, deep focus, processing that never lifts saturation. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e5e2da, carry the structure in #81817d and #242423, and let a single accent come from #8b897b. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, calm, rebellion. ## Where they fight - New Objectivity Photography and New Topographics both belong to Photography Movements, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - New Objectivity Photography: One frame is no typology, and without matched conditions it ends as a pile of expressionless pictures. Do not trust the pose of objectivity, and read the bias that classification and viewpoint produce. - New Topographics: Posing as neutral while choosing light and framing too carefully produces scenic photography in documentary clothes, and the change goes unread. ## 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
- New Objectivity Photography 1920s–1930s / Style / Photography Movements
Steps back from sentiment and records the structure of people and things coolly: sharp focus, frontality, typology.
- 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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