The introduction of David Campany’s book So present, so invisible claims that “Photography is the easiest thing to talk about, and for that reason it can be the most difficult.” He comments that people with articulate voices are able to “see past the obvious” and “say something about the profound aspects of the medium”.

An intriguing piece of information that Campany mentions is that photographers seem much more approachable when they were talking freely to others and not addressing him. Something about this format of conversation is freeing since he feels like he was eavesdropping.

Campany is often invited by artists and photographers to write about their practice. He states that a conversation is better than preparing question in advance since he doesn’t want to “interrogate”. This is why he never fully researches in advance since he wants to converse with the photographer and discover more. Campany says that the best moments come when both individuals are clarifying each others thinking. No matter the length of the conversation, nearly all were open ended. No one knew where the conversation might go or where things would end up.

JOHN STEZAKER

John Stezaker has been making collages for over forty years, by combining 2 photographs or by removing an element from one photograph. His art is associated with surrealism, situationism and pop. Stezaker uses familiar materials such as postcard pictures and generic film publicity photos. From these ordinary images he has been able to express his creativity through collages.

Initially his painting were “not as interesting as his collages” and the collages were “not as interesting as the original image”. This led to a crisis in his first year at London’s Slade School of Fine Art, which resulted in him giving up art. Stezaker didn’t know how to improve on his photos because in order for him to be fascinated with an image it had to “already be there, it had to be found”. This is when he began to use a process of collecting, fragmenting and reassembling images as a primary activity. Around this time he also discovered situationism which created justification for what he was doing.

Digression is important to Stezaker because “it is a way of escaping conscious control”. creating collages involves digression and allows a “conscious contemplation of the image in its dream state”.

From the start, he thought of his collages as “cutting into, opening up”. That is why so many of his early titles relate to surgery. He wanted to open up a space that he thought was closed. Somehow the cut also helped to create a feeling of depth.

The photograph is called ‘Bridge’ and is part of Stezaker’s masks series. The image seems to depict the relationship between the child and the man, which I assume is the boy’s father. The boys seems to be showing something and he attentively watches. I instantly made the assumption that the boy and the man are related due to their positioning; Their gaze is towards one another, they are close to each other and they seem to be in the boys room.

The black and white image and the photo of the bridge combine together well since they appear like they are meant to be together. The smaller image is vibrant and there may be a deeper meaning behind the choice of this photograph. The placement of the bridge reinforces this assumption.

The section of the bridge closest to the father is more complex in structure. This could be a reflection of the man since fathers are complex and have greater life experiences. Whereas the bridge in the sons direction is simpler in structure as he has yet to face these hardships since he is only a child. He doesn’t have any responsibilities yet and therefore does not need extra support.

The photograph could also represent a shared memory between father and son; A memory of a holiday perhaps since the image depicts a landscape.

A bond between a father and his son is strong and usually starts from an early age. The bond one would have with their father would be completely different to one had with a mother. I feel like the photograph touches on the subject of bonding and appreciating time together.

When I first explored his work I thought he simply placed one image on top of the other. However upon further inspection, I found that was not the case at all. I like how he has chosen to combine old images with different aspects of nature or architecture. Though at first glance it seems like they are just two separate images, you come to realise that the images fit together perfectly.

Laura Letinsky is best known for her elegant composed still life photographs. Inspired by the 17th century European still life paintings, Letinksy offers her 21st century perspective of the genre. She is aware of the rich narrative possibilities that still life presents. Although her photographs are similar to Dutch still life, they are more modernised.

The scenery usually has a dirty table cloth, as if someone just got up and left their meal after a huge argument with someone. Although as thoughtfully composed as the arrangements of those historic painters, her images embrace the messiness of real life where peaches rot, and table cloths are stained with spilled red wine and covered with crumbs from meals consumed.

Early in her career, she photographed couples in their own homes creating visual narratives about love and relationships. By the late 1990s she stopped photographing people and replaced them with objects. She began using objects that hinted at human presence.

The autochrome process was invented in France by brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière. The Lumières began a commercial manufacture of autochrome plates in the early 20th century.

Autochrome plates are covered in microscopic red, green an blue coloured potato starch grains. When the photograph is taken, light passes through these colour filters to the photographic emulsion. The plate is processed to produce a positive transparency. Light, passing through the coloured starch grains, combines to recreate a full colour image of the original subject.

Autochrome plates were manufactured at the Lumière factory in Lyon and was a complex industrial process. The transparent starch grains were passed through many sieves to isolate grains. These gains were separated into batches, dyed red, green and violet, mixed together and spread over a glass plate. Next charcoal powder was spread over the plate to fill any gaps between the coloured starch grains. A roller spread the grains and flattened them out. Finally, the plate was coated with a panchromatic photographic emulsion.

Lumière Autochrome is the first colour photograph taken in Jersey in 1904 G. Guiton & E. Guiton. This photograph of a vase containing roughly assembled garden flowers was the starting point for photographers to explore the possibilities of colour.

Emile’s autochromes fall into two categories. The first category are still life photographs such as flowers, stained glass windows, fruit. The second category can be described as domestic photographs such as children playing, a garden, local country scenes.

The still life photographs are an attempt to experiment with the autochrome process, to improve his technical understanding and the quality of his images. Guiton was also making attempts at classical arrangements and compositions.

https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/autochromes-the-dawn-of-colour-photography/

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo20al/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/09/The-Autochromes-of-Emile-Guiton.pdf

Sir Nathaniel Bacon did not paint professionally but he was a skilled amateur artist. The cook maid surrounded with lavish produce, usually associated with Dutch and Flemish art, is unusual in England for the period. The painting is quite unusual for British art of this period since it shows a lavish still life. Still life paintings became established in Britain in the late seventeenth century.

Every item depicted in the image is known to have been growing in England. Although every item represented in the painting was grown in England, not all would have been in season. According to a letter, Bacon was growing melons at his estate in East Anglia, and was known to have a keen interest in horticulture. The painting reveals the artist’s interest in gardening which was becoming increasingly fashionable during this time period.

His wealth let him paint for his own pleasure. We know that Nathaniel Bacon travelled in the Southern Netherlands during this period and that paintings of cook maids were prevalent in the southern Netherlands in the late 16 Century and early 17th Century. He may have travelled there, trained there and become accustomed to this compositional style while he was there.

The subject most likely would have had erotic connotations. The large amount of ripe melons surrounding the cookmaid echo her cleavage.

https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/audio/curator-tim-batchelor-discusses-cookmaid-still-life-vegetables-and-fruit

A Still Life painting is a piece that features an arrangement of inanimate objects as its subject. Usually, these items are on a table and often include organic objects such as fruit and flowers and household items.

Northern Renaissance artists popularised still life imagery with their flower paintings. These pieces typically showcase colourful flora when they are blooming. These paintings became important in the early 17th century, when Northern Renaissance artists became interested in creating realistic studies of everyday items.

The Dutch Golden Age artists created vanities paintings. These paintings are inspired by the genre memento mori which translates to “remember that you have to die” in Latin. These pieces often pair cut flowers with objects like human skulls, candles and hourglasses to comment on the short nature of life.

Still life were a great opportunity to display skill in painting textures and surfaces in great detail and with realistic light effects. Food of all kinds laid out on a table, silver cutlery, intricate patterns and subtle folds in table cloths and flowers all challenged painters. Mostly all still life had a moralistic message, usually concerned with the shortness of life; This is known as the vanitas theme.

Vanitas Paintings – A Metaphor for Transience

Symbolism was present in every form of Still Life but never more significant than in Vanitas work where everything spoke of the inevitability of death: Skull – reminder of the certainty of death; The watch or hourglass – the brevity of life. Flowers and butterflies can be interpreted in the same way, and a peeled lemon was, like life, attractive to look at but bitter to taste. Art Historians debate how much, and how seriously, the vanitas theme is implied in still life paintings without explicit imagery such as a skull.