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 Photomontage: Shift scale on purpose, putting small figures beside enormous objects
- Type
- Set in Photomontage's manner (Cut headlines from existing print and paste them at unmatched sizes), and let Staged Photography's lettering (Make the text in the frame as a prop rather than borrowing a typeface) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Photomontage's material (Magazine and newspaper cuttings, paste, rephotography, seams kept or hidden); bring in exactly one thing from Staged Photography (Built sets or models, cinematic lighting, large format shot and printed big).
- Colour
- Build on #e6dfd0, #b83b2f, #1d1b19 and admit one accent from #e4ddd2, #92705e, #2c2623.
Where they fight
- Photomontage and Staged Photography are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
Caution
- Photomontage Copying only the cutting and pasting leaves fragments side by side with no collision, and the criticism the method existed for never lands.
- Staged Photography Staging that only imitates a natural record leaves the assumption that photographs record reality untouched, and the whole reason for constructing the scene disappears.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Photomontage (Technique, 1910s–) and its accent from Staged Photography (Technique, 19th century– / 1970s revival). Structural cues: Cut-out photographs; Mixed scales; Visible seams; Reused print matter. Accent cues, used sparingly: Constructed scenes; Props; Cinematic lighting; Deliberate artificiality. Composition: Shift scale on purpose, putting small figures beside enormous objects. Type and lettering: Cut headlines from existing print and paste them at unmatched sizes. Let one material quality come from the second style: Built sets or models, cinematic lighting, large format shot and printed big. Mood: Rebellion, Exhilaration, Play, Luxury. Color: build on #e6dfd0, #b83b2f, #1d1b19 with a single accent drawn from #e4ddd2, #92705e, #2c2623. 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
- Photomontage 1910s– / Technique / Photographic Techniques
Cuts and rejoins photographic fragments, assembling relations and critical meanings that never existed in the original reality.
- Staged Photography 19th century– / 1970s revival / Technique / Photographic Genres
Composes scene, figure, props and light before the shutter, shaking the very premise that photographs record reality.
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