This really is nothing new. Take a photo with distinct horizontal bands, then accentuate them into a graphic field.
I think some of the inspiration behind this (admittedly throwaway) stuff consists of:
- a very young Mat overusing this effect at college when realising how easy it is to do in Photoshop
- Gerhard Richter obvs
- some 90s or early 2000s Flash site I can barely remember that basically animated this effect, but really slowly to ambient music
![Thames](/images/colour-field-1-960w.png)
![Stork](/images/colour-field-2-960w.png)