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 Topographics: Hold the horizon near the middle and shoot subjects square on at equal distance.
- Type
- Set in New Topographics's manner (Captions carry place and date only, in one fixed form, with no comment.), 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 Topographics's material (Even overcast light, deep focus, processing that never lifts saturation.); bring in exactly one thing from Typology Photography (Frontal shooting under flat overcast light, focal length and height fixed).
- Colour
- Build on #d8d4c8, #8b897b, #4c4a44 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 Topographics Posing as neutral while choosing light and framing too carefully produces scenic photography in documentary clothes, and the change goes unread.
- 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 Topographics (Style, 1975–) and its accent from Typology Photography (Style, 1959–). Structural cues: Empty suburbs; Frontality; Dry color; Man-altered landscape. Accent cues, used sparingly: Grid presentation; Even overcast light; Strict frontality; Typification through repetition. Composition: Hold the horizon near the middle and shoot subjects square on at equal distance.. Type and lettering: Captions carry place and date only, in one fixed form, with no comment.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Frontal shooting under flat overcast light, focal length and height fixed. Mood: Calm, Rebellion, Trust, Technology. Color: build on #d8d4c8, #8b897b, #4c4a44 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 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.
- 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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