People Who Took a Photo And Realized It’s “Accidental Renaissance”

When you point your phone camera at a random thing on the street, you usually don’t expect much. But in the vast sea of dull photos that fill your camera roll, some may stand out. Call it a miracle, or a lovely surprise, but if you feel like a photo you just snapped is superior in composition, style, lighting, and somewhat resembles a classical painting, it may be that you have just encountered “accidental Renaissance”.

Thanks to the devoted community r/AccidentalRenaissance subreddit that collects photos that “accidentally resembles the types of art popular from the 14th-19th centuries,” we now know that it’s a thing that happens to more just few people. The subreddit in question was born back in the 2014 and is still going strong with hundreds of thousands of members.

How to make a modern photo that resembles a Renaissance painting? The most popular subjects shared on the subreddit seem to depict scenes with crowds of people. They may be doing things like protesting, marching for a cause, or otherwise expressing themselves, also highly saturated photos livestock, or interesting architecture featuring chiaroscuro and, many times, sun or light rays highlighting a portion of the photo seem to be the key to get that Renaissance look.