Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects.

Because still life’s are in fact still, they became photography’s favourite subject back in its earliest days. Soon after the creation of the first ever photograph in 1839, it was convenient for pioneer photographers to take pictures of something that’s not moving. The reason was simple and technical enough: exposures were fairly long, so long it even took days for an image to come to life, so an inanimate object was perfect for the occasion. These works tended to resemble still life depicted in paintings, so much they even used the same objects and arrangements. As the photographic camera improved, still life was no longer a necessity, but it nevertheless remained one of the most attempted types of photo making Today, this kind of photography mostly lives in form of advertising shots, as their demand on the market is quite high, but its existence in terms of the arts certainly did not go cease either, as many photographers still do it for pure aesthetic reasons, for instance.

Where still life photography originated

still life photography’s origins reside in the early 20th century. Art photographers emerged such as Baron Adolf de Meyer. The Baron was known for his highly artistic approach to photography, as he employed darkroom techniques and used soft-focus lenses to create photographs that looked like drawings, which was fashionable at the time.