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Still life-analysis

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Intro

In this blog post i will be experimenting with different kind of still life categories and researching all the different ones to decide which genre of still life do i want to focus on to talk about and then research and finally experimenting to create some photographs of that genre.

So i started by choosing my favorite two genres which were dead animal still life and symbolic still life.

Dead Animal Still Life

After doing my research about dead animal still life i concluded that it is not much more than just a still life of something rather iconic but with not much meaning behind. It is just basically a still life photograph that includes the body of a dead organism that represent something else but not much of a reason behind that.

This is a still life of a scene were there is a dead rabbit and dead birds, but what really caught my eye is that the actor chose to keep one animal alive which was a grey African parrot on the top of an exotic fruit basket. I did a lot of research about it but still didn’t find an exact reason for why did the artist chose to draw some dead animals but keep one particular animal alive.

Symbolic Still Life

 This is a wider category that denotes any type of still life with an overt symbolic narrative, usually religious or quasi-religious in nature. which i really liked because there is a reason and/or meaning behind everything in a symbolic still life which makes it very interesting and eye catching. What i really enjoyed about this genre is that you can get lost in it as in to understanding the meaning or reason behind everything in the still life.

After a lot of research i could identify what the objects in this still life represent, with the skull representing mortality, on the other hand the burnt out candle represent death, with the book under the skull meaning the transmitting of information, and finally the finished sand clock on the side representing the finishing of passing time.

Vanitas (Latin for vanity).  These are paintings with still life symbolism around a central theme with a moral message.  They remind the viewer of death, the fragility of human life, and the brevity of our existence.   The artist would use items like a skull, timepiece, snuffed out candle to represent the passage of time.  Books, musical instruments (very expensive items during the time period) are there to warn of the futility of worldy pursuits.

Conclusion

So in conclusion i chose symbolic still life as my focus in the still life project as i can experiment with a lot of stuff while taking my photographs and in the same time sending a message with the final photographs to represent something.

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