The term “still life” describes a work of art that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world, such as fruit, flowers, dead game, and/or vessels like baskets or bowls. Looked at another way: still life’s depict things that are “still” and don’t move. Still life is a genre that spans art history. Most still life’s can be placed into one of four categories: flowers, banquet or breakfast, animal(s), and symbolic

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Now usually, when fresh food is used, the still life symbolism signifies abundance, riches, and the bounty of the upper class. When the food was depicted as decaying, it serves to show us our own mortality and eventual death. Still life drawing is a great way to build essential drawing skills like hand-eye coordination, creating shadow and perspective, and noticing finer details. If you know a creative mind who wants to start learning art, a drawing class experience gift may be perfect for them.

Renaissance Still Life

During the Middle Ages and into the Early Renaissance period, Still Life painting accompanied religious artworks as supplementary stylistic elements with symbolic meanings. These were usually painted in the backgrounds of religious paintings as well as on other artistic works like illuminated manuscripts, which were seen in Northern Renaissance and Early Netherlandish paintings.

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Other artists like Leonardo da Vinci and the German painter Albrecht Dürer painted Still Life’s without religious symbolism. For example, Still Life paintings were done of various natural objects of fauna and flora.

Dutch Still Life

Still Life painting started as a genre in the Netherlands, or what was termed as the Low Countries, which comprised of Belgica, Flanders, and the Netherlands. The Dutch Golden Age was a result of Dutch independence from Spain, which led to the Dutch Republic being born. Still Life was especially prominent as a painting style during this time, especially paintings of flowers.

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The Protestant Revolution also minimized the production of religious artworks, which led the way for other types of genres of painting to be explored. Still Life paintings were favoured because they depicted the everyday scenes of people and their lives and had inherent symbolic meanings from various objects. This branched into what was called “Dutch Realism”.

Modern Still Life

Modern Still Life prevailed during art movements like Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Notably, during Post-Impressionism, Vincent van Gogh brought Still Life painting to life with his expressive and flower and vase paintings. An example of this includes his piece, Sunflowers (1889).

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During the Cubist art movement, popular artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque created Still Life paintings in their characteristic abstract and cubic style. An example of this is in Picasso’s Large Still Life (1881 to 1973) and Braque’s Still Life with Metronome (1909).

Still Life Photography

A still life is a work of art that focuses on inanimate subjects. Usually, the subjects are commonplace objects. That can include both manmade objects (such as vases, items of clothing, and consumer products) and natural objects (like plants, food, rocks, and shells).

Still life photography makes it easy to experiment. In contrast to portrait and landscape photography, you don’t have to deal with live models, and you don’t have to search out an interesting location or photo opportunity. Instead, you can create your own interesting composition using common objects you have or find nearby.

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It gives you the opportunity to experiment with light, materials, textures and subjects in a controlled setting. Whatever your creative vision and artistic goals, still life is a great place to start. Still life photography essentially comes down to the study of lighting, the way rays of it interact with your object, create or eliminate shadows, and help you tell its story. Depending on your object’s surface, shape and size, the light can have different effects on it, so the best way to start is to just experiment with it all.

What to focus on when making a still life image:

• Different Lighting
• Camera angles
• Focus and Depth of field
• Adding motion
• Good set up
• Clarity of images

Image Analysis

This image is filled with many different aspects, the best being the composition of this photograph, with there not being many different objects in the image, they are all the same yet look very different, with the many different forms of oranges it shows how creative you can be with just one material. Furthermore, I think that the blue background really makes the oranges stand out, as they are opposing colours on the colour wheel meaning that it creates lots of contrast within the photograph. Additionally, I think that the fact that the oranges have been created into a shape of many balloons, shows that when it comes to still life photography any material can be adapted and this created an interesting and unique focal point for the photograph. However, I think this image could be seen as too vibrant, despite this being eye-catching I think that the composition could have been better if it was filled with many smaller balloons.

What is the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive?

The Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive contains over 100,000 items dating from the mid-1840s to the present day and is the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century photograph. Archives can be a rich source for finding starting points on your creative journey. This will strengthen your research and lead towards discoveries about the past that will inform the way you interpret the present and anticipate the future.

“Our mission is to produce and facilitate research on the Island’s history, culture, language and environment; and to share that knowledge with the widest possible audience for the benefit of our island community.” – The Societe Jersiaise

They achieve their aims through their active Sections, research collections, community outreach and collaboration with local and international heritage partners.

The Société’s Sections specialise in various fields of study, from archaeology to zoology. These volunteer sections produce the raw data and research which make long-term studies possible, and at the Société they’ve been doing it since 1873. The Société holds extensive bibliographic, cartographic, photographic and research collections which act as our long-term memory. These collections provide a vital resource informing contemporary study and value for the community through a greater understanding of our shared heritage, identity and environment

History behind the Societe Jersiaise

The Société Jersiaise was founded in January 1873 by a small number of prominent Islanders who were interested in the study of the history, the language and the antiquities of Jersey.  Membership grew quickly and the aims of the new society soon widened to include the publication of historical documents, the founding of a Museum, and the study of the Island’s natural history. 

They have, over the years, purchased archaeological sites in Jersey for preservation and presentation. Their two most important sites are La Hougue Bie, purchased in 1919, and La Cotte de Saint-Brélade, purchased in 1955. They have carried out extensive excavations at both sites.

In 1913 the Société’s activities as a learned society were organised into ‘Sections’ for the study of different aspects of the island.  These Sections, now 14 in number continue to be the backbone of our activities.

—- Emile F Guiton —-

Emile F Guiton was born in Jersey in 1879 and he had a keen interest in history. He was a member of La Société Jersiaise and 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 was a keen amateur photographer and practised throughout his long life. He experimented with colour at the beginning of the twentieth century in “Autochromes”.

His subjects include the recording of archaeological excavations and he was one of the few people in Jersey permitted to take photographs during the German Occupation of 1940 – 1945. Emile Guiton also recognised very early on the importance of collecting photographs, both as a valuable social historic resource and as interesting artefacts – examples of developments in science and technology. He donated many images to the Société Jersiaise. 

Image analysis

I particularly like this photograph taken by Guiton as it showcases a very high exposure which lights up the entire image, making it appear very heavenly. The main focal point of the image is clearly the bright opening in the centre which allows for a teeming amount of white light to seep through. The rocks presented within a greyscale photograph and provide many different textures captured within the area.

—- My rock gallery —-

The Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive allowed us to compose our own gallery at the institution surrounding the aspect of ‘islandness’ and what it means to be among Jersey’s geological background. This gallery contains many Year 13’s joiners alongside normal photographs of the islands rock formations, and also many other experiments to present the importance of the island’s structures.

— My images within the gallery —

Here I have two images up on display in the gallery which I particularly liked out of the entire selection I had produced. Everyone got a chance to submit their favourite photographs from the project and these two I believed were two of my strongest joiners that I had taken.

Process of editing my images

Image Edit 1:

Here with this image, I decided to convert it into a black and white image like I have been doing with my previous images from past photoshoots such as the L’Etacq one and the Devil’s Hole one. I wanted to showcase a sense of importance by making this rock central to the image.

Image Edit 2:

I decided to edit this photo by choosing one of the creative presets and adjusting it to my liking. I wanted to experiment with colour this time rather than strictly black and white, just to enhance Jersey’s beauty within it geology.

Image Edit 3:

For this image, once again I have chosen to edit the original image with a much warmer preset within the creative filters. I wanted to create a warmer image as a contrast from my usual black and white ones, just to see how it would present. I wanted to display warmth within the image so that Jersey’s colours would shine and showcase what the islands beauty is really all about. Both images have quite a drastic colour difference, one being a lot cooler with black and whites, and the other being much warmer with browns and beige tones.

Image Edit 4:

Here I have followed the same editing method for my first editing example, but the only difference is that this image is taken as a portrait photograph whilst the other image is taken as a landscape photograph. I tried to capture once again the true essence of Jersey’s geology by presenting a large rock as the central focal point for the photograph. I once again chose the approach of editing it in black and white as to capture a more dramatic interpretation of the islands formations and rock shapes.

—- Best images —-

Coloured images:

Black and white images: