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 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 #e8e8da, #8c8d82, #1d1f1d.
Where they fight
- New Objectivity Photography and Typology 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.
- Typology Photography Hanging pictures made under different light and angles turns those differences into the subject, and the variation between objects disappears.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from New Objectivity Photography (style, 1920s–1930s) and their accent from Typology Photography (style, 1959–). ## 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 Typology Photography, used sparingly - Grid presentation - Even overcast light - Strict frontality - Typification through repetition Let one material quality come from it: Frontal shooting under flat overcast light, focal length and height fixed. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e5e2da, carry the structure in #81817d and #242423, and let a single accent come from #8c8d82. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, calm. ## Where they fight - New Objectivity Photography and Typology 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. - Typology Photography: Hanging pictures made under different light and angles turns those differences into the subject, and the variation between objects disappears. ## 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.
- 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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