What is Contemporary Still Life?
“Contemporary Still Life brings together approximately fifty paintings, sculptures, drawings, tapestries, and photographs executed since 1960. The exhibition has been assembled with the intention of encouraging a rethinking of the traditionally narrow definition of still life”.
Laura Letinsky Case Study
Letinsky was born on Winnipeg and is a Canadian comtempoary photographer who is known for her still life photographs and graduated from the Yale School of Art in 1991. When starting photography, she started as a portrait photographer but matured through her photography to working with still life imagery. At present she is working at the Visual Art University of Chicago.
Her images reflect the famous Dutch still life but with a new feel which were described as “ripeness, freshness and decay”. This makes her still life different from Dutch still life, due to hers being more modern because of the elements included. She has said that she uses photography to convey our understanding of relationships and love which could link back to her “ripeness” in her photographs. It has been said that her association with still life associates with femininity, minor art and imbrication within the home.
Mood Board of Her Style/Images
Her Style..
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Landscape Images
- Simple camera settings
- Low ISO’s throughout
- Fully focused images (high shutter speeds)
- Monotone colours used
Analysation Image
Technical Analysis- Technically, we can see that the photograph has been taken with a simple camera setting, allowing conceptual factors to be an important part in the photograph. The shutter speed used must of been quick due to their being no intended blur on the image within the frame. There must have been a low ISO used on the photograph because of the soft lighting seen on the image which has obviously been done with artificial lighting which was created from studio lights. Their is an accurate white balance being used for the environment in. The aperture used in the photograph is seeming to be low because of the large depth of field in the picture.
Visual Analysis- We can see that this is a landscape image with the main focus being on the centre of the image which is a half eaten melon. Their are very monotone colours used in the image which helps to contrast with the yellow/orange melon which is placed in the centre of the image. The background is also seen as simplistic.
Conceptual Analysis- The creased table cloth is suggesting a sense of mess and uncleanliness. Due to Letkinskys work being about femininity, I personally am taking this unclean rug as a symbolism of an unpure women, and due to this being an object I feel as if the image is also representing women as not being objects.
