New Objectivity
A German movement of the 1920s favouring clear, unsentimental description of the world, often in close-up and typological form.
In depth
Neue Sachlichkeit rejected both expressionist emotion and Pictorialist softness in favour of precise, frontal, evenly lit description. Its influence runs directly to the postwar Düsseldorf School and, through it, to a great deal of contemporary art photography's cool, systematic manner.
Examples in practice
A plant photographed frontally in flat light against a plain ground, presented as botanical evidence rather than decoration.