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Still life is exactly as it sounds. It is a picture or mainly painting consisting of an arrangement of objects in a specific formation and placement.

Still life originated from the Egyptian and Roman periods around the 15th century growing an independence during the 1600s, but originated in the Netherlands as a genre, mainly consisting of flowers. There are many different meanings for still life, for example in Italian it translates to natura morta, also meaning “dead nature”.

It was used during this time for some to show off your riches, showing off your hierarchical placement, and the unique objects you obtain. Eventually the meaning behind still life grew for artists, with more moral reasonings behind them creating unique looks.

You could see still life was a deep concept, showing the beauty of life, and how it can be placed in any manner possible, showing the uniqueness of forever changing life within each picture and/or painting.

During the post impressionism, famously Van Gogh brought sill life paintings to life, with one of his paintings called “sunflowers”, creating inspiration for other artists to be influenced by and adapt from in their own way.

Vanitas

Vanitas was one genre within still life, which where paintings consisting of dead objects or things. This was to show people in a creative concept about death, and how it should be bought to attention as peoples inevitability.

It was look at in a unique way to show people how everything should be taken lightly in life, and how it is destiny for life to end, and is a common occurrence in life. It was also seen as Emptiness, worthlessness, but was still seen in an accepting light.

This links in to the phrase “mememto mori” with the same view of inevitable death and a similar meaning of remembering you must die. With the paintings mainly consisting of skulls, and other dead objects.

Most of these paintings and pictures where seen mainly of symbols and metaphors for life, about life. It gave people a better view and meaning in life, almost a comfort, with the knowing and acceptance of death, whilst also seeing the present beauty of life.

In Greek terms, the word “Photography” means “Drawing with Light”.

Aside from that, “Photography” is the practice of when you take photographs using a Camera.

Photography has very deep roots in our history, thanks to photography we can capture a significant thing that had happened in that moment. And it can be used to remember that specific moment, whether it be of a family holiday or a conflicting moment that shocked you and many others.

David Campany:

David Campany was a writer who published a book called “On Photographs” in 2020. It talks a lot about the messages photos hold and how we decipher them. In the book he asks: What shapes our response to photography?, Where does the meaning we ascribe to it come from? And how important to our reading of it are the photographer’s intention?

The Day Nobody Died:

“The Day Nobody Died” was a photograph that was made in Afghanistan in 2008 by Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin. During this time, a war in Afghanistan was happening.

This photo, rather interestingly. Was created on a day when no deaths were reported, meaning no one had died, which is where it gets it’s name from.

Broomberg and Chanarin made this by leaving six metres of photographic paper in the sun for twenty seconds. Being taken in a warzone, this image is said to capture the themes of war, like conflict and suffering. While as no deaths may have happened that day, the fear and the destruction remained.

I believe this fits very well with what Campany said when he asked “What shapes our response with photography?” and even his third question, “How important to our reading of it are the photographer’s intention?” can fit in too.

In general our response to photography is a combination of your own upbringing, culture background and life experiences

Use in response to question about the photographers question

A person who may be viewing this for the first time may think this picture looks very cool and pretty. But when you dig deeper into the origin of this photo you begin to realize that its actually about the very scary and horrifying themes of war. It may change the way you see the photo after.

The second question, “Where does our meaning we ascribe to it come from?” also applies here.

This quote put simply is talking about how photography creates emotions for us. For example, when you know about the picture’s origin you begin to understand that this art piece symbolizes the fighting and destruction of war. You may feel a variety of emotions, an obvious one would be sadness as this photo was taken where people have died, and if you think about it you realize that people had to die for this photo to be taken. Another feeling some people may have could be relief. As this photo was taken when the war was at rest as no one had died during that slight period.

Leap into the Void:

“Leap into the void” is a photograph taken in 1960 by Yves Klein, Harry Shunk and János Kender. It shows a man falling off a ledge and is captured mid fall.

The meaning behind this photo is a “demonstration of freedom and constraint” which is why the man is seen jumping off the ledge, he is almost forgetting the rules of reality and is trying to bend them. There is also a contrast seen here which makes the photo more interesting, with the person seen on the street riding the bike, that person is very different to the leaping man because the person can be viewed in this context as not free and instead obeying reality.

In conclusion, Photography from my point of view, Is a passion you can really invest yourself into. With Photography you can create anything you want, from showing the way you see reality to creating an abstract picture to deceive and confuse people from the real meaning it may hold.

I photographed a range of different beach objects around the school. I took some pictures inside and some outside.

This is Adobe Lightroom, the tool I will be using for most of the time.

These are the pictures I took in the studio.

I filtered out my rejects to show only the ones I flagged.

This is the compare view, it helps determine which image is better if you want to keep one and discard the other. You can even zoom in to see every detail.

You can rate each post with stars too.

This is me editing each picture I took by changing the lighting and colours to make the pictures better. I’m also saving my pictures in different subfolders.

These are the final products, I think they look very good:

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Still life photographs or paintings are just a arrangement of objects, which typically include fruits and flowers. They also include objects which contrast with the fruits and flowers like glass bowls and vases.

Marion Buccella paints many different still life scenes, with garden objects and flowers. Also stuff like kitchen utensils and foods. She also does vintage still life which includes things like old books, candles, feathers and ink. These different paintings could relate to things like meals in the kitchen for the kitchen still life paintings and also authors in the vintage still life paintings.

This Dutch still life painter decided to do something different to using the normal still life objects, by using all the usual objects but made in plastic. This relates and draws out attention to the every day and over use of plastic and how many things are made with plastic in the modern world.

This photographer created a series of photos which were all using last meals on death row. He used old plates, cups etc to mix the idea of the modern-age with vintage items. These photos, although they do not seem it are actually based on real last meals from death row inmates before they were executed.

What is still life: still life is traditionally a collection of  inanimate objects arranged as the subject of the photo. Where does still life come from still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven. It was used for a panting in the 17th century not a photo however we use the word for photos and paintings that have still life in them like fruit, flowers, cups, etc. 

The painting generally considered to be the first still life is a work by the Italian painter Jacopo de Barbari painted 1504. The “golden age” of still life painting occurred in the Lowlands during the 17th century. (here it is vvv)

Paulette Tavormina is a famous still life photographer she takes the some of the best still life images.

Continuous lighting vs flash lighting:

Continuous lighting is the opposite of flash – the lights are constantly lit instead of only when the shutter is pressed.

Continuous lighting can be paired with a slower shutter speed, giving the photographer the opportunity to create shadow and even a chiaroscuro effect. With this slower shutter speed however, (anywhere under 1/100 of a second) the photographer would need to remain aware of any movement in the image, and to temper this with use of a tripod, if necessary. Therefore, a differentiation between the two will give different results.

There are different types of continuous lighting however, which I will show examples of here:

A Key light is the primary source of light in your images. The colour, strength and shape of your key light will affect the entire composition.

Backlighting involves having the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject – this can create some interesting shadows and also eliminate ambiguity if the photographer wishes to.

Reflected lighting is a clever way of using the light in your environment to your own advantage and manipulate it to create different effects. In the above example, it is clear that by adding the reflection, the image will have far more depth and clarity, but will still have the same exterior background.

Flash lighting involves the use of a bulb that flashes when the shutter is pressed. This creates a high key light source and eliminates shadows. It is also mostly paired with a fairly high shutter speed.

https://fstoppers.com/lighting/continuous-lights-versus-flash-portrait-photography-610586

Still life can either be art or photography and it depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural or man-made. They are arranged in a specific way and always tend to portray some sort of message or idea.

Still-life photography’s origins reside in the early 20th century.

Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe.

Vanitas

A Vanitas is a piece that portrays a meaning. It often suggests the idea of ‘now’- how pointless and inefficient pleasure is and the certitude of death. It creates a contrast between wealth and satisfaction with death and the idea of impermanence.

The term originally comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Vanitas are linked with memento mori still lifes (memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’) which portray the shortness of life and how fragile it is. The idea of death is commonly symbolised with the use of skulls, burning/ extinguished candles and other inanimate objects. They also include other objects such as flowers, books, alcohol and other things that are seen as pleasure. These portray how worthless the ideology of pleasure is, as it always comes to an end and never supplies us with anything worthwhile.

Still Life Artists

This photographer was inspired by the work of 17th century painters such as Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian. Paulette Tavormina is a American photographer who creates still life pieces using many symbols of pleasure as well as the certainty of life, including things such as books and jewellery as well as extinguished candles. She uses dark backgrounds and bright lights to cause them to look as though they are surrounded in darkness while still bringing out the details of the objects.

This photograph seemingly looks like a desert photographed in a dark room. however, this photo is from a series called ‘Last Meal on Death Row’. Despite looking like intricately arranged foods photographed in a Still Life style, the true meaning portrays something much darker. The contrast between the luxurious meal and sinister backstory, causes this to be a very interesting still life piece. The symbolism of pleasure is engulfed in the disturbing fact that this is the last meal of an inmate about to be executed. Through the use of chiaroscuro (the contrast between the dark background and light colour of the ice cream enlightened by a dull spotlight), Mat Collishaw caused the image to look quite dramatic and eerie.

Commonly used Metaphors and Symbols in Still Life

– Flowers: innocence as well as impermanence/ life and growth. 

– Skulls: the certainty of death- commonly used to contrast with the other pleasures represented.

– Candles (mostly extinguished): the passing of time/ everything coming to an end.

– Books and Musical Instruments: warn of the futility of worldly pursuits (very expensive things at the time).

– Glass: life of luxury (very expensive at the time).

– Wine Glass: almost empty glass symbolises the brittleness of life.

Aperture can be defined as the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the camera. in some other ways it can be describes as an iris as it work similarly like a human eye, where it can shrink or expand controlling the size or the pupil. in this example the pupil of the lens is named aperture.

When you control the size of aperture, you allow more or less light enter the camera sensor.

Understanding Aperture in Photography

aperture can give a blurred background, which is usually used in portrait photography. This is because aperture has an effect on depth of field as it can add dimension to your photos by controlling depth of field.

For example, here is an image with a shallow depth of field:

Aperture can also control how clear the background is,(opposite). this means more objects in the first plan and background would be in focus. this is often used in landscape photography where photographers would like to make everything in focus.

 aperture also effects the exposure of an image, the lower the aperture the lighter the image and the higher the aperture the darker the image.

As aperture is controlled through the lens, the wider the lens, the smaller the aperture meaning more light and less in focus elements. another way to remember this is: a large aperture results in a large amount of both foreground and background blur and a small aperture results in a small amount of background blur

Depth of Field is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects giving a focused image .In relation to depth of field the bigger the aperture, meaning the smaller the opening in the lens, the greater Depth of field , so more items are in focus.

Aperture can also be expressed as a number known as “f-number” or “f-stop”, with the letter “f” appearing before the number, such as f/6. This can be found on the top right corner of the cameras screen, like so:

Aperture affects in photography:

1. The brightness / exposure of your photos and depth of field, as discussed so far
2. Sharpness loss due to diffraction
3. Sharpness loss due to lens quality
4. Starburst effects on bright lights
5. Visibility of camera sensor dust specks
6. The quality of background highlights
7. Focus shift on some lenses
8. Ability to focus in low light (under some conditions)
9. Controlling the amount of light from the flash

I have experimented with different types of aperture , resulting in some images being brighter then others. This is because as the aperture, the lens opening is wider it lets more light in causing the pictures to become overly exposed, whereas in other photographs I have used already set up camera, where the IOS, Aperture and Shutter Speed were set up in a way that was relevant to the place and circumstances

These are the settings of the set up camera, where IOS, aperture and shutter speed can be seen on the top row.

When taking photographs of the objects we had a set up white background and another coloured paper underneath the objects.

Over exposed image:

Image after adjusting Aperture:

Aperture means to open the lens of the camera to let more light into the lens. Aperture is expressed in numbers, the average camera aperture goes from f/1.4 to f/22. The bigger the number the smaller the hole in the lens letting in less light. The smaller the number the larger the hole in the lens letting in more light.

How Aperture effects Exposure

As aperture controls the the amount of light that reaches the camera sensor therefore effecting the exposure of an photo. meaning that a wide aperture can lead to over exposure as there is too much light and a high aperture can lead to under exposure as there is too little light.

How Aperture effects Depth of Field

Depth of field is directly effected by Aperture the higher the aperture, for example f/22 the more background that’s in focus. For wider apertures it lets in more light meaning less of the background is in focus.