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 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 Typology Photography's lettering (Lettering kept outside the frame, place and date in one format throughout) 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 Typology Photography (Frontal shooting under flat overcast light, focal length and height fixed).
- Colour
- Build on #e5e2da, #81817d, #242423 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- 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.
- Typology Photography Hanging pictures made under different light and angles turns those differences into the subject, and the variation between objects disappears.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from New Objectivity Photography (Style, 1920s–1930s) and its accent from Typology Photography (Style, 1959–). Structural cues: Sharp focus; Frontality; Repetition and types; Material detail. Accent cues, used sparingly: Grid presentation; Even overcast light; Strict frontality; Typification through repetition. 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. Let one material quality come from the second style: Frontal shooting under flat overcast light, focal length and height fixed. Mood: Trust, Technology, Calm. Color: build on #e5e2da, #81817d, #242423 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 Objectivity Photography 1920s–1930s / Style / Photography Movements
Steps back from sentiment and records the structure of people and things coolly: sharp focus, frontality, typology.
- Typology Photography 1959– / Style / Photography Movements
The Bechers' method of shooting one kind of structure under identical conditions and hanging the results in a grid. Repetition under overcast light, dead-on and without people, turns individuals into types, and by way of the Düsseldorf school it became a grammar of contemporary photography.
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