After looking at still life images with a plane white background i decided to experiment with color and see what differences this made to the images and whether i liked it or not.

Using lightroom cc to edit a lot of my image is focused on making them look as vibrant as possible whole at the same time not having the background over power the image as a whole and the objects become lost within the image.

We were taken down as a class to the studio where we got the opportunity to be introduced to the world of still life on a professional commercial level using a professional still life table. The still life table is made a bent piece of white plastic acrylic. To set up the still life table you need lighting. The big light on the left is the key light also known as a tong stone light. The light on the right is called a fill light.

There is also a back light. This isn’t vital but is using when the objects being photographed are too light . This is used to blast out any shadows at the back of the images so that to object looks as if it is floating , suspended with a background behind.

Placing the object in the center is important because it because there is an even distance between each object and the light so that there are minimal shadows created.

Using a piece of paper under the object mean that there is minimal reflection in front of the object so the main focus of the image is on the object.

4. Contemporary practice: Complete at least one artist reference on how contemporary photographers explore still life and objects in their work. What meaning can we attribute to images of food and everyday objects – consider social, economical and cultural references.

Walker Evans, (born November 3, 1903, St. Louis, Missouri , U.S.—died April 10, 1975, new haven, Connecticut), American photographer whose influence on the evolution of ambitious photography during the second half of the 20th century was perhaps greater than that of any other figure. He rejected the prevailing highly aestheticized view of artistic photography, of which Alfred Stieglitz was the most visible proponent, and constructed instead an artistic strategy based on the poetic resonance  of common but exemplary  facts, clearly described. His most characteristic pictures show quotidian American life during the second quarter of the century, especially through the description of its vernacular architecture , its outdoor advertising, the beginnings of its automobile culture , and its domestic interiors.

Most of Evans’ early photographs reveal the influence of European modernism, specifically its formalism and emphasis on dynamic graphic structures. But he gradually moved away from this highly aestheticized style to develop his own evocative but more reticent notions of realism, of the spectator’s role, and of the poetic resonance of ordinary subjects. The Depression years of 1935–36 were ones of remarkable productivity and accomplishment for Evans. In June 1935, he accepted a job from the U.S. Department of the Interior to photograph a government-built resettlement community of unemployed coal miners in West Virginia. He quickly parlayed this temporary employment into a full-time position as an “information specialist” in the Resettlement (later Farm Security) Administration, a New Deal agency in the Department of Agriculture.

Between 1934 and 1965, Evans contributed more than 400 photographs to 45 articles published in Fortune magazine. He worked at the luxe magazine as Special Photographic Editor from 1945 to 1965 and not only conceived of the portfolios, executed the photographs, and designed the page layouts, but also wrote the accompanying texts. His topics were executed with both black-and-white and color materials and included railroad company insignias, common tools, old summer resort hotels, and views of America from the train window. Using the standard journalistic picture-story format, Evans combined his interest in words and pictures and created a multidisciplinary narrative of unusually high quality. Classics of a neglected genre, these self-assigned essays were Evans métier for twenty years.

In 1973, Evans began to work with the innovative Polaroid SX-70 camera and an unlimited supply of film from its manufacturer. The virtues of the camera fit perfectly with his search for a concise yet poetic vision of the world: its instant prints were, for the infirm seventy-year-old photographer, what scissors and cut paper were for the aging Matisse. The unique SX-70 prints are the artist’s last photographs, the culmination of half a century of work in photography. With the new camera, Evans returned to several of his enduring themes—among the most important of which are signs, posters, and their ultimate reduction, the letter forms themselves.

Analysis: Select a key painting and comment on the religious, political and allegorical symbolism of food and objects in terms of wealth, status and power, or the lack of.

Cookmaid with still life of Vegetables and Fruit by British painter Sir Nathaniel Bacon

• Title: Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit
• Creator: Sir Nathaniel Bacon
• Date: c.1620-5
• Provenance: Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund 1995
• Physical Dimensions: 1510 x 2475 mm
• Original Title: Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit
• Type: Painting
• Rights: Tate
• Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Sir Nathaniel Bacon did not paint professionally, although he was a skilled amateur artist. Very few works attributed to him survive, so the appearance of this work on the art market presented the Collection with a rare opportunity for acquisition. Furthermore, the subject matter, a cookmaid surrounded with lavish produce, more usually associated with Dutch and Flemish art, is highly unusual in England for the period and associated only with Bacon. Every item depicted is known to have been growing in England: Bacon himself grew melons on his Suffolk estate

Additional Viewing Notes: ‘Cookmaid’ and market scenes, popular in the seventeenth century, evolved in the Low Countries from a genre practised by Pieter Aertsen (c.1533-c.1573) and his pupil Joachim Beuckalaer, which combined contemporary kitchen scenes with a New Testament episode beyond. Bacon could have seen such works on a visit he made to the Low Countries in 1613. An inventory of 1659 connected to the will of the artist’s wife lists ‘Ten Great peeces in Wainscote of fish and fowle &c done by S:r Nath: Bacon’ (quoted in Gervase Jackson-Stops, ed., The Treasure Houses of Britain, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1985, p.140). Two other ‘Cookmaid’ pictures are known to exist: Cookmaid with Still Life of Game and Cookmaid with Still Life of Birds, both in the possession of the artist’s descendants. The Tate’s work is possibly part of this group. Such groups were often intended to depict the four seasons or the twelve months of the year. In the case of this piece, however, although every item represented in the painting was grown in England at the time, not all would have been in season simultaneously. Bacon, according to a letter dated 19 June [1626], was growing melons at his estate in East Anglia, and he was known to have a keen interest in horticulture. The subject would most likely have had erotic connotations. The abundance of ripe melons surrounding the cookmaid echo her voluptuous cleavage.

This painting is in oil paint on canvas measuring 1510 x 2475 mm (fig.1). The support is a single piece of very fine, plain-woven linen. It has 15 vertical threads and 17 horizontal threads per square centimetre. Cusping of the weave around the edges indicates that it was primed as a single piece on a strainer or stretcher that has not survived (fig.2).1 When acquired by Tate in 1995 the lined painting was attached to an adjustable pine stretcher. The style of this stretcher and of the lining (linen canvas with red lead in oil as the adhesive) suggested an origin in the late eighteenth century, although the use of red lead as the lining adhesive would be unusual at any time. The stretcher was slightly smaller than the original would have been; the ground and the painted design strayed over onto its tacking edges on the top, bottom and left sides.

No underdrawing is visible with the unaided eye or infrared. Cross-sections and surface examination indicate an additive or sequential style of painting. The cabbage leaves, for example, were first laid in with opaque bluish tones composed of smalt, azurite and red lake. The deep shadows were added on top with a mixture containing azurite, red lake, vermilion and black; the highlights with pale green mixed from azurite, lead tin yellow and smalt. Finally thin glazes of red lake or red lake mixed with azurite were applied here and there (fig.4). The purplish blue grapes at the bottom edge were laid in with opaque grey paint, then glazed all over with semi-translucent purplish red before the opaque blue paint was applied selectively on top (fig.5).

The range of pigments is fairly restricted. Azurite mixed with lead white was used for the cookmaid’s blue bodice, with smalt and black added for the shadows. The sky is a mixture of white lead and smalt. The bright yellow of the melons and other fruit is lead-tin yellow. The sixteenth-century miniaturist and writer Edward Norgate tells us in his bookMiniatura of 1627−8 that Bacon made his own yellow lake (‘pinke’) from the plant Dyers’ Broom and analysis of this painting showed that Bacon used this pigment mixed with ochres and azurite to make the greens of the distant foliage, and also on its own as a top glaze.4 The dye was fixed to a substrate containing calcium, aluminium and sulphur, as related in the recipe. The red plant dye in the red lake is cochineal, almost certainly from the New World. It is possible that the painting has undergone some fading. Cross-sections from the sky and from the blue grapes suggest that there has been some degradation of the smalt, and examination of the red skirt suggests it was originally glazed with red lak

Still life emerged as an independent genera particularly during the early 1600s Dutch and Northern European paintings. Many of the objects depicted in these early works are symbolic of religion and morality reflecting on the increasing urbanization of Dutch and Flemish society, which brought with it an emphasis on the home and personal possessions, commerce and trade.
Paintings depicting burnt candles, human skulls, dying flowers, fruits and vegetables, broken chalices, jewelry, crowns, watches, mirrors, bottles, glasses, vases etc are symbolic of the transience and brevity of human life, power, beauty and wealth, as well as of the insignificance of all material things and achievements.

Origins and Definition of Still Life
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.’[1] 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. Living creatures were in fact allowable as long as they were incidental to the main theme. Specialization was a notable feature of Dutch 17th century art; consequently, Still Life – itself a particular aspect of art – further diversified into different categories.

The Distinct Categories.
The earliest examples, from the beginning of the 1600s and later influenced by ‘tulip-mania’, were the popular floral paintings; these were followed by flowers with fruit, then the humble ‘breakfast pieces’. As the century progressed, and wealth became widespread, so the ‘breakfast’ developed into the ‘banquet piece’. Perhaps influenced by deep-rooted Calvinism centred on Leiden University, the Dutch psyche remained a moralising one and the concern with the transience of life was the motif of the numerous ‘Vanitas‘ paintings and an element in other genres. Another important facet of Still Life, Trompe L’Oeil – French for ‘deceive the eye’ – evolved in mid-century from the game piece, its illusionism appealing to the Dutch penchant for humour. Finally, at the latter part of the century, taste changed, colour and form became more baroque and pronk still life- the art of the ostentatious – was born.

Socio Economic Background
The creation of the Dutch Republic gave rise to a great pride in national identity and with it came a delight in the new art that was uniquely Dutch. As the economy flourished, and trade with the Indies and South America expanded, so did the fashion for collecting, the popularity of painting in general, and Still Life –Stilleven -in particular. Watchful Calvinist ecclesiastics, dwindling royalty and powerful Burghers changed the face of patronage. With the emergence of the aspirational, property-owning bourgeoisie, a whole new market opened up.

This out of the set of my final images to me is my favorite because i feel that it really captures her internal emotions through her eyes and expression on her face. The direct eye contact with her eyes and the camera lens makes you feel as if you are there and makes you connect more with the models inner emotions. Also i really like the gradient background how it goes from bright white to a subtle grey creating a contrasting flow through the background. the face is also lit with one half darker and one half lighter than the other. This is diagonally matching with the back ground the the side of the face which i feel makes the image more interesting. This creates depth through the light and the darkness and dimension and texture with the focal point of the image remaining to be the eyes.

The next image i chose has a lot more cooler tones and the background is lighter and so are the highlights in her face.

I imported all the images i took into light room classic CC. At this point i can see all the images back to back ans see which ones i like and which ones that i am going to discard. Also i can actually see how many i mages i took in the shoot.

Using the X and P keys on the key board I can Flag The images that i want to keep with the P tool and Discard the images I don’t want with a black flag using the X key. This highlighting meaning i can get an initial idea of how my images that i want to take on the edit look all together as a collective.

Then i went on to use the develop settings withing lightroom classic cc changing the sharpness , depths of tones within the images , cropping them so the is less background to get the final result desired.

As a class we had a guest speaker come in to talk to us all about world war two. Our guest speaker was Joan Taply she was an early lady who was alive in the second world war and was able to give us a first had recount of what life was like back then. She spoke in a very calm and gentile way but she encapsulated all of the classes attention from her first word. The way she described everything was like it was yesterday.

These were some of the bullet point notes that I wrote down form her talk. These notes gave me more insight into what life was like and it also give me more context behind the objects and places I have been photographing.

• When jersey was occupied Joan was 6 at the time, her family treated her more like an adult that a child because they didn’t try an hide what was going on in the outside world from her.
• she went on to say that may jersey people felt like they had been completely sold out by the British soldiers because jersey was given over (surrendered) to the Germans, rather than there being fight over who as it, it just seamed to be thrown away to the Germans with no thought to the people who lived there.
• The day before the occupation all family’s and house holds were forced to hang out white flags or bed sheets to show surrender. This meant that there would be so shooting taking place when the Germans arrived because the had white flags to so they came in peace.
• June 1940- they got to watch all the planes coming into the airport, the airport had opened 3 years prior. This was the first time she said she had seen white vapor trails from the planes in the sky.
• She heard the first people being shot as a set of planes flew over Victoria Avenue and people were shot down there.
• At Le Platon Guns began to get installed at the highest points on the island this is when local people started realizing that this war was going to be o a lot longer than they thought it would.
• A few month in to the occupation there weren’t allowed up onto the cliffs anymore because barbed wire and mines had been placed up there.
• Food shortages were starting to be felt the Germans would triad food with France but most of this food went to the solders and not to the islanders. Then everyone was allocated ration books.
• Joan’s mother registered as a farm worker so that she could try get more food for the family and have access to more produce. As a result of this everyone began to try there own food to get around the shortages.
• The Germans then introduced a curfew in the military zone (the main area of jersey that wasn’t cordend off for fighting.) It was 10pm in the summer and 9pm in the winter. There was also a morning curfew where you couldn’t leave your house before this time it was 6am in summer and 7am in winter.
• No lights were allowed to be shown at nighttime so that enemy planes couldn’t see where to bomb. So black outs were put in place all doors and windows had to be covered and borded up. One positive Joan said of this as a little give she would look up and see millions of starts because there was no light pollution at all.
• The food shortages were getting worse and worse as the war went on the little corner shops were almost bare. Tea had completely run out so substitution for food came into place. Parsnips were grated up put in the oven till golden brown then dried out . Then placed into a pot with boiling water pored on top. This was known as a substitute for tea or some families would use exactly the same recipe and call it coffee. No sugar was a really big issue so they would get the sugar beat root vegetable boil it up until it turned into a golden brown syrup that could be used in all types of cooking.
• There currency change as a result of the Germans occupying to riche marks and phenix 1 richie mark was around 12p of jeresy money at the time.
• Everything that farmers grew they had to let the authorizes know because they were only allowed to grow and sell a certain amount. People in town found it harder to live on there rations because they were unable to grow a lot of crops. Mr Levacont was there farmer who lived next to Joan at the time.
• When harvesting the corn there would line down pieces on the corn so that there was spare that wasn’t being monitored by the Germans. Women would come along with sack aprons and go to get the left over corn. They would then take this corn to the mill where the miller would mill the corn without the German solders knowing and give the corn back to the women in sacks. There hapend to be a lot of pregnant women at this time because they would tie the corn sacks around there waists and pretend to be pregnant so they could transport the corn from the mill to there home. Joan’s mum replaced her mattress with a bag of corn because they needed to hide it from the German soldiers.
• Cole became almost impossible to get so they had to use Cole dust and tar as an alternative to light fires.
• 8th of mat the day before liberation day joans dads boss let everyone at work go home early because they had heard on the Chrystal radios that the war was over and jersey was going to be liberated tomorrow.
• So the whole family when to town and found that they had managed to get started a hidden lorry that had been put away through the war and there was lots of kids and family riding about on it having fun. She said it was the first time she had heard real laughter in a long time. They road the lorry along the avenue she said it was so funny to see so many cars along the avenue because many people had then hidden and got then started up for the war finishing.