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 Vision Photography's lettering (Align added lettering to the picture diagonal, off the horizontal) 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 Vision Photography (Hard direct light, strong shadow, black and white with the blacks closed).
Colour
Build on #e5e2da, #81817d, #242423 and admit one accent from #e5e3dc, #8b8f92, #151719.

Where they fight

  • New Objectivity Photography and New Vision Photography 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 Vision Photography If the angle changes but reveals nothing about the subject, the picture becomes a shape nobody can name and the surprise is spent at first glance.

Image prompt

Produce four original images that take their structure from New Objectivity Photography (style, 1920s–1930s) and their accent from New Vision Photography (style, 1920s–1930s). ## 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 Vision Photography, used sparingly - Steep angles - Close-up - Hard light and shadow - Abstraction Let one material quality come from it: Hard direct light, strong shadow, black and white with the blacks closed. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e5e2da, carry the structure in #81817d and #242423, and let a single accent come from #8b8f92. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, calm, futurity, exhilaration. ## Where they fight - New Objectivity Photography and New Vision Photography 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 Vision Photography: If the angle changes but reveals nothing about the subject, the picture becomes a shape nobody can name and the surprise is spent at first glance. ## 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 Vision Photography 1920s–1930s / Style / Photography Movements

    Looks for perception only a camera can produce, using views from far above and far below, extreme close-ups and experiments with light.

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