“I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.” 

https://irvingpenn.org

Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraits and fashion photography alongside still life’s. He has a book titled ‘Still Life: Irving Penn Photographs 1938-2000’ – This book gathers Penn’s work in the still life genre, so central to his art, from 1938 until 2001. It opens with an introduction by John Szarkowski, who places Penn within the larger context of artists working in still life. Penn oversaw the design and production. – Published by Bulfinch Press, Boston, 200

At a time when photography was primarily understood as a means of communication, he approached it with an artist’s eye and expanded the creative potential of the medium, both in his professional and personal work. Penn’s preference for photographing in the controlled environment of a studio, where he could trim away anything that was not essential to his compositions and hone in on his subjects.

I have previously taken some time to look into Irving Penn studio portrait photograph and look into his style of working and found it very interesting and informative and eventually worked very well with outcomes for studio portraits, which is why I have chosen to look at Penn for still life photography of objects as well.

Irving Penn – Studio Photography

Collection of Irving Penn’s still life work:

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I enjoy Irving Penn’s work as I find it pleasing to the eye and I like the way that some of the photographs look less staged, like somebody has been using the cutlery or using the ruler and then Penn has taken a photograph how it has been left and this is something that I like about the images and how they are presented. I also like how some show repetition with the apples they are all laid out 3 by 4 and is something I would like to try and experiment with when I look at making my own still life photographs.

Image Analysis:

Below shows the photograph I have chosen to edit and look into in more depth. This photograph is called ‘After Dinner Games’ and was taken in New York in 1947. The photograph shows a variety of objects placed on a table. Unlike some other still life photographs I have seen where there is no horizon line, in this image we can clearly see the line where the table cloth ends and the wall begins, I feel this generates a more ‘lived-in’ feel as it is less artificially placed. The objects have been arranged to seem as though people have been using them and this is how they have been left, we can see drink and ash stains on the cloth as well which adds to less synthetic feel to the photograph. The image has fairly white light suggesting that is probably artificial rather than natural light which I feel tends to be more warm and yellow, there is a slight shadow falling to the right of the photograph from the underneath of the card, the dice and the chess piece suggesting the light is mainly coming from the left side of the photograph. I enjoy the composition of this photograph with how all of the objects are linking together and aren’t just laid out separately, I feel it creates a really interesting photograph that is pleasing to look at and creates and idea or story of what could have been happening if this photograph was taken in a real life situation.

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

The first practicable method of colour photography was the autochrome process, invented in France by Auguste and Louis Lumière. Best known for their invention of the Cinématographe in 1895, the Lumières began commercial manufacture of autochrome plates in the early 20th century.

HOW DO AUTOCHROMES WORK?

Autochrome plates are covered in microscopic red, green and blue coloured potato starch grains (about four million per square inch). 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.

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Emile Guiton

Emile Guiton was probably the most prolific of the Jersey photographers who chronicled island life during the first half of the 20th century. A substantial collection of his pictures is contained in the photographic archive of La Société Jersiaise.

Born in Jersey in 1879 he had a keen interest in history and was a member of La Société Jersiaise, served on its executive committee as joint honorary secretary, and was curator of the Museum and editor of the Annual Bulletin.

He also realised that history was being made during his own lifetime and he recorded the development of his native island from the turn of the century until his death in 1972. He experimented with Autochrome colour very early in the century.

Not only did he record events and activities during his own lifetime, particularly agriculture, but he had a fascination with the past and chronicled with his images many archaeological excavations (his pictures of the interior of La Hougue Bie remain some of the best in existence) as well as photographing Mont Orgueil Castle and other coastal fortifications, sites of geological interest, and architecture. Guiton had a particular interest in the design of Jersey houses over the centuries, and particularly in different styles of arches to be found in the island.

He was present at many major events, including the Liberation in 1945 (he had also taken photographs during the German Occupation, and the proclamations of successive monarchs in the Royal Square.

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How Artists Have Kept Still Life Painting Alive Over Thousands of Years

Edouard Manet once called still life “the touchstone of painting.” Characterised by an interest in the insentient, this genre of art has been popular across movements, cultures, and periods, with major figures like Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso sharing the Impressionist artist‘s view.

STILL LIFE: nature morte; A still life pictorial is a painting/drawing/photograph is a piece that features an arrangement of inanimate objects as it’s subject. Traditionally these items would be set on a table and would often include organic items such as fruit and flowers, as well as household items such as glassware.

The term “still life” is derived from the Dutch word stilleven, which gained prominence during the 16th century. While it was during this time that the still life gained recognition as a genre, its roots date back to ancient times.

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Ancient History

Still-life as an art form first originated from Ancient Egyptian highly codified mortuary rituals. Egyptians at the time believed that objects represented on the walls of a tumb or inside a sarcophagus would accompany the dead in the afterlife. Greek and Romans later realised similar types of paintings though they did not associate any religious symbolism to it anymore. However, unlike Egyptian frescoes which were not using any perspective or shading, Greek and Roman started to develop a somewhat sophisticated form of still-life ar, more realistic and detailed.

Socio Economic Background:

The creation of the Dutch Republic caused a rise in having great pride in national identity and it came with a delight in the new art that was uniquely Dutch. As the economy flourished, and the trade with the Indies and South America grew so did the fashion for collecting, the popularity of painting in general, and Still Life (Stilleven) in particular.

As a result of this trade with far-flung places and the introduction of exotica, Dutch artists of the 17th century became renowned for being greatly concerned with what Kahr refers to as a: ‘close scrutiny of the natural world.’ This, combined with their preoccupation with perspective and the study of light, provided the basic elements of Still Life painting. The term had come into general usage in mid-century, Still Life being the carefully composed portrayal of inanimate objects.

RENAISSANCE

Northern Renaissance artists popularized still life iconography with their flower paintings. These pieces typically showcase colorful flora “from different countries and even different continents in one vase and at one moment of blooming” (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and often do not feature other subject matter. These paintings rose to prominence in the early 17th century, when Northern Renaissance artists grew increasingly interested in creating realistic studies of everyday items.

DUTCH GOLDEN AGE

Dutch Golden Age artists took this interest in detailed floral art a step further with their vanitas paintings. Vanitas paintings are inspired by memento mori, a genre of painting whose Latin name translates to “remember that you have to die.” Like memento mori depictions, these pieces often pair cut flowers with objects like human skulls, waning candles, and overturned hourglasses to comment on the fleeting nature of life. Unlike memento mori art, however, vanitas paintings “also include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity of worldly pleasures and goods” 

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/still-life

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Image Analysis:

Jan Baptist Weenix painted a wide range of subjects: landscapes, still life, genre scenes, history paintings. During the early part of his career he painted Italianizing scenes in the style of his father, before achieving a reputation as a talented painter of game, both living and dead. Weenix went on to become one of Holland’s most celebrated painters of hunting still-life.

Hunting still-lives, clearly, differ from everyday kitchen and table scenes, contextually they highlight an important aspect of the lives of a highly privileged social class. Hunting trophies such as this were often painted for the townhouse or castles of wealthy parsons. In this way aristocratic parsons were able to advertise their passion for hunting. Designed to impress, depictions of the game, together with game bags and other accessories, in sophisticated, luxurious settings, were seen as potent symbolic expressions of aristocratic wealth, pride and landownership.

As with Weenix’s paintings of game, and other hunting still lifes of the time, an animal (in this painting a hare) is shown hanging by one of its back legs with its head down, as a trophy. The motif is directly related to the practice and customs of hunting with dogs. Here the hare is hung from the top of an arched window frame seeing out to a landscape. The animals head and legs are resting on a marble ledge and to the right lie two partridges on top of what could be a game bag. To the left of the hare what seems to be a type of hunting horn is seen to be sticking out. The colour scheme of dark warm tones, browns and reds, could be taken as a hint towards the idea of raw meat, associated with an essence of hunting, the window ledge itself is made from a slab of red and white-veined marble.

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