Andreas Gursky (1955– )

The architect of hyperreality

Gursky redefined photographic scale. His massive, detail-rich images of global commerce, crowds, architecture and landscapes feel both overwhelming and impossibly ordered. The world becomes pattern, structure and data — seen from a detached, almost godlike perspective.

His work is defined by monumental clarity, digital refinement and an atmosphere that is simultaneously objective and uncanny.

Jeff Wall (1946– )

The master of constructed realism

Wall created “near-documentary” scenes — photographs that look spontaneous but are meticulously staged. His large lightboxes created glowing, cinematic tableaus built from controlled lighting, precise color and rigorous composition.

His work blurs the boundary between truth and construction, shaping modern visual storytelling with quiet theatricality.

Thomas Struth (1954– )

The poet of cool neutrality

Struth’s cityscapes, museum views and portraits embody a precise, emotionally restrained realism. His photographs are calm, balanced and technically perfect, allowing viewers to observe without manipulation.

Color stays neutral, structure remains clear, and the world appears both ordinary and monumental. His images reflect a quiet, intellectual form of global documentary.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1951– )

The choreographer of cinematic everyday life

diCorcia fused reportage with cinematic lighting, creating scenes where real people appear lit like movie characters. His color is rich, his highlights deliberate and his mood suspended between drama and stillness.

His staged street work introduced a new blend of fiction and reality that defined editorial and conceptual photography in the 1990s and 2000s.

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Creative Tools Inspired by the Era

To help contemporary photographers achieve the clarity, structure and global perspective of this period, this collection includes original presets inspired by the Digital Clean & Global Documentary aesthetic.

Included Presets:

GlobalClean Clarity

GlobalClean_Clarity delivers a hyperclean, ultra-detailed look inspired by large-format digital precision. It sharpens microstructure without harshness, brightens neutral tones and produces an expansive clarity that makes images feel architectural and analytic. Colors remain controlled and natural, while the overall atmosphere becomes calm, monumental and quietly overwhelming.

This profile is ideal for wide cityscapes, global perspectives, interior structures and any scene where clarity becomes the subject itself.

StructuredScale Color

ColorSoft Roadtrip creates a gentle, pastel-leaning atmosphere ideal for calm, daylight scenes. Saturation remains soft, highlights carry a warm glow, skies take on a natural pastel quality and overall contrast stays deliberately low, producing a quiet, reflective mood.

This profile is perfect for road trips, small towns, motels, cafés, suburban landscapes and travel diaries that rely on color subtlety rather than intensity.

MuseumNeutral Tone

MuseumNeutral Tone embraces cool neutrality and documentary perfection. It softens contrast, calms saturation and creates an observational distance that feels quiet, thoughtful and precise. The tonal palette stays restrained, offering a clean balance between shadow detail and soft highlights.

This profile is perfect for city scenes, architectural stillness, galleries, portraits with emotional restraint and any situation where neutrality becomes a form of clarity.

CinematicFlash Color

CinematicFlash Color combines filmic lighting with rich color and subtle drama. It recreates the suspended, theatrical mood of scenes lit with controlled, directional or flash-based illumination. The colors feel deep and expressive, highlights glow with cinematic refinement and shadows carry emotional tension without heaviness.

This profile is ideal for staged street scenes, conceptual portraits, editorial storytelling and photographs that borrow atmosphere from cinema while remaining rooted in reality.

How to Use These Tools

These presets work beautifully on scenes defined by scale, precision and atmosphere — whether digital, cinematic or documentary. They support:

• global perspectives
• constructed realities
• quiet architectural spaces
• emotionally neutral portraits
• technically perfect environments
• cinematic street scenes with controlled light

They are designed to reinforce this era’s belief that clarity is not coldness — it is intention, perspective and storytelling, adapted seamlessly for contemporary digital workflows.