Still life photography is everything that is an inanimate object in front of a camera. Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe. The first still photograph was taken around 1830
Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A vanitas is a symbolic work of art that shows the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, it is often contrasting symbols of wealth, symbols of ephemerality and death. 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.
Memento Mori
Memento Mori translates to “remember you must die” which implies they are objects which reminders us of the inevitability of death, such as a skull.
Paulette Tavormina, Vanitas VI, Reliquary, After D.B., 2015
Tavormina a New York photographer takes pictures of still life inspired by the seventeenth century. She uses nostalgic and ancient items against the young flowers to show that everything ages, this can also be reinforced by the candle that is burned out and the hourglass slowly ending.
Parker is a self taught photographer that experiments with the different possible lighting that can be used. Parker started off as a painter, however soon turned to photography and quickly mastered the way to incorporate extensive knowledge of art history and literature and reference the conflicts and celebrations of contemporary life in her work.
TIMELINE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
METAPHORS AND SYMBOLS IN STILL LIFE
FRUIT – Like human life, fruit is perishable and ephemeral, therefore when a fruit appears to be fresh and ripe, this acts as a symbol of abundance, bounty, fertility, youth and vitality.
SKULLS – When skulls appear in photos the often have a moral purpose. Skulls symbolize mortality and ephemerality. They are a reminder of the fleeting pleasures of life.
CANDLES – Candles represent the inevitability of the passing of time, the longer they burn, the smaller they get until there is nothing left. A lit candle symbolizes light, truth, and knowledge. An extinguished candle symbolizes loss and death.
FLOWERS – Flowers can symbolize innocence as well as impermanence. Furthermore flowers can be a reminder of the shortness of our existence and the fleeting nature of life’s earthly pleasures.
SEASHELLS – Seashells symbolize birth, purity and fertility.
watch the documentary on ‘Fixing the Shadows’ from BBC Genius of Photography, Episode 1.
To embed your understanding of the origins of photography and its beginnings you’ll need to produce a blog post which outlines the major developments in its practice. Some will have been covered in the documentary but you may also need to research and discover further information.
Your blog post must contain information about the following and keep it in its chronological order:
Camera Obscura
Nicephore Niepce
Louis Daguerre
Daguerreotype
Henry Fox Talbot
Richard Maddox
George Eastman
Kodak (Brownie)
Film/Print Photography
Digital Photography
Each must contain dates, text and images relevant to each bullet point above. In total aim for about 1,000-2000 words.
Archives in contemporary photography: Also read text about the resurgence of archives in contemporary photography by theorist David Bate: archives-networks-and-narratives_low-res, make notes and reference it by incorporating quotes into your essay to widen different perspectives. Comment on quotes used to construct an argument that either support or disapprove your own point of view.
Origins of Photography: Study this Threshold concept 2: Photography is the capturing of light; a camera is optional developed by PhotoPedagogy which includes a number of good examples of early photographic experiments and the camera obscura which preceded photography. It also touches on photography’s relationship with light and reality and delve into photographic theories, such as index and trace as a way of interpreting the meaning of photographs.
Photography did not spring forth from nowhere: in the expanding capitalist culture of the late 18th and 19th centuries, some people were on the look-out for cheap mechanical means for producing images […] photography emerged experimentally from the conjuncture of three factors: i) concerns with amateur drawing and/or techniques for reproducing printed matter, ii) light-sensitive materials; iii) the use of the camera obscura — Steve Edwards, Photography – A Very Short Introduction
View from the Window at Le Gras by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827
Debates about the origins of photography have raged since the first half of the nineteenth century. The image above left is partly the reason. View from the Window at Le Gras is a heliographic image and arguably the oldest surviving photograph made with a camera. It was created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. The picture on the right is an enhanced version of the original which shows a view across some rooftops. It is difficult to tell the time of day, the weather or the season. This is because the exposure time for the photograph was over eight hours.
What is a daguerreotype?
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography. Named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate.
In contrast to photographic paper, a daguerreotype is not flexible and is rather heavy. The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp. It has a mirror-like surface and is very fragile. Since the metal plate is extremely vulnerable, most daguerreotypes are presented in a special housing. Different types of housings existed: an open model, a folding case, jewelry…presented in a wooden ornate box dressed in red velvet. LD a theatre set designer
The invention of photography, however, is not synonymous with the invention of the camera. Cameraless images were also an important part of the story. William Henry Fox Talbot patented his Photogenic Drawing process in the same year that Louis Daguerre announced the invention of his own photographic method which he named after himself. Anna Atkins‘ British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions of 1843 is the first use of photographic images to illustrate a book. This method of tracing the shapes of objects with light on photosensitive surfaces has, from the very early days, been part of the repertoire of the photographer.
Henry Fox Talbot – Latticed Window, 1835
In the month of August 1835, William Henry Fox Talbot produced the first photographic negative to have survived to this day. The subject is a window. Despite the clear connection, it is an entirely different image compared to those of his colleagues Niépce and Daguerre. Those are photographs taken from a window, while this is the photograph of a window. From the issue of realism, we shift here into an extremely modern outlook which today would be likened to conceptual and metalinguistic discourse. While the window constitutes the most immediate metaphor to refer to photography, Talbot doesnʼt use it but more simply he photographs it. He thus takes a photograph of photography. The first to comment on this was the author himself, writing a brief note (probably added when it was displayed in 1839) on the card upon which it is mounted. The complete text reads:
Latticed Window (with the Camera Obscura) August 1835 When first made, the squares of glass, about 200 in number could be counted, with help of a lens6
In 1978, the German photographer Floris Neusüss visited Lacock Abbey to make photograms of the same window. He returned again in 2010 for the Shadow Catchers exhibition at the V&A to create a life-sized version of Talbot’s window (below right).
That 1878 photogram was the start of our adventures in creating photograms of large objects in the places where we found them […] we took our equipment to Lacock Abbey and made a photogram of a fixed subject. This particular subject was for us not just a window in a building but an iconic window, a window on photography, opened by Talbot. The window is doubly important, because to be able to invent the photograph, Talbot first used photograms to test the light sensitivity of chemicals. His discovery became a window on the world. I wonder what percentage of our understanding of the planet we live on now comes from photographs? — Floris Neusüss
The idea of photographs functioning like windows makes total sense. Like the camera viewfinder, windows frame our view of the world. We see through them and light enters the window so that we can see beyond. Photographs present us with a view of something. However, it might also be possible to think of photographs as mirrors, reflecting our particular view of the world, one we have shaped with our personalities, our subconscious motivations, so that it represents how our minds work as well as our eyes. The photograph’s glossy surface reflects as much as it frames. Of course, some photographs might be both mirrors and windows. If you’re interested in thinking a bit more about this you might want to check out this resource.
Examples of Jersey-based Photographers—the early days…
Using Lightroom Classic, I have learnt the features included in the program. I have learnt how to import images from the computer media files into Lightroom classic. Furthermore I have learnt how to rate, flag, star my images, picking the best images from the photoshoot.
Due to absence these are not my images however it has taught me how to use Lightroom Classic, using the flag feature.
FLAG COLOUR REPRESENTATION
GREEN = Good images that I plan on using
AMBER = Good images perhaps used in the future.
RED = Good images but not necessary used
CREATING COLLECTIONS
Here I have created a new collection to separate my best images from the whole photoshoot, to avoid scrolling through hundreds of images. I used the “create new collection” option. This means it is easier to sort and select my objects for editing them in the future.
Now there are two separate folders one of which is filled with all my images from the photoshoot (122 images) whereas the other folder ‘FACE2’ has only 5 of my best images that I can selected easier for when I decide I need to edit them.
Aperture refers to the opening of a lens’s diaphragm through which light passes. The larger the f/ number is the less amount of light the camera is letting in, meaning you are able to focus more things in the image.
APERTURE CHART
WHAT IS DEPTH OF FIELD?
Depth of field (D.O.F) is the distance between the nearest and furthest elements in a scene that appear to be sharp in an image. A deep DOF means all or most of your photo will be in focus, including the foreground, subject and background.
What is still life? Still life is typicallya photograph or painting of objects such as fruit, flowers, glassware, everyday objects and more. It captures the detail in objects seen in everyday life whether man made or from nature.
Here’s some examples of still life paintings. They are typically realistically painted. They are usually painted from looking at the arrangement, but can also be from a reference photo.
These are some examples of still life in photography:
They can range from dramatic and intense photos, with dark surrounding to create a dramatic mood.
Or they can have bright backgrounds creating a light-hearted mood, with less dramatic tones as the previous image.
Still life time-line:
1840 William Henry Fox Talbot
1860 Roger Fenton
1907 Clarence White
1930 Frederic William Bond
1994 Clive Landen
2006 Ori Gersht
Vanitas
Vanitas is a 17th-century still life painting in a Dutch genre. It contains symbols of death and change to remind them of their inevitability.
Memento Mori
Similar to Vanitas, Memento Mori is an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death. A skull is typically used for this as a reminder.
Metaphors and Symbols in Still Life
A classic still life painting is a basket of fruit. Although they come across as what they are, the painting or photograph can be depicted to have symbolic meaning. For example, apples could signify temptation from the story of Adam and Eve. For instance, Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio’s still life painting has rotting fruit in it, which he used to symbolise his feelings about the Protestant Reformation at the time.
Another symbol is how candles represent the inevitability of time passing. The longer a candles burn, the closer it is to there being nothing left. This also is a symbol of death like Vanitas and Memento Mori.
However on the other hand flowers can be a symbol of life, growth and power. The beauty and vibrancy they hold can represent how life can be the same. Although the idea can be flipped when a wilting flower is painted. It is a reminder of material goods and how beauty is fragile.
Shutter speed is the length of time that the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light when taking a photograph. A fast shutter speed will reduces the amount of light meaning the image will be sharper and it won’t be as over exposed. If the shutter speed is slow it will allow a greater amount of light in to the camera making the image blurred and under focused and therefore making the image over exposed.
JOHN BALDESSARI
John Anthony Baldessari was an American artist known for his pioneering use of appropriated imagery. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California.
PHOTO GAMES
When taking the photos of the dodge balls we used a fast shutter speed, which therefore created a sharper and defined image. Whereas when taking the pictures of the boxing punches we used a slower shutter speed which therefore creates a more blurred and unclear image.
Studio lights are any form of lighting equipment used by photographers, often when working in a photography studio, to enhance their photography. Most professional photographers have different light kits they use depending on the situation they find themselves shooting in.
Continuous lighting
Continuous lighting setups allow you to keep your subjects pre-lit using the same light levels as when you take the photograph, these lights will stay on the whole time. Other lights, like traditional flashes or strobe lights, produce light only in momentary flashes, making it harder to adjust the lighting before shooting.
Because the lights are on all the time, you can position your model and change the light stand to have the light fall precisely the way you want it. You can instantly see where the shadows fall, adjust the highlights and/or double check that the catch lights hit the eye just by raising or lowering the light or moving the stand around.
Continuous lighting will allow you to photograph simultaneously without interfering with each other’s lighting.
With continuous lighting, you don’t need to worry about external lighting components like triggers. That means you can get your shoot set up quickly and easily regardless of how many cameras you intend to use.
This photo was taken using continuous lighting.
Where as Flash Lighting is when it illuminates the area with light. When you’re taking a photo in low light conditions, you might need a flash.
Flash lighting
Like flashes of lightning in nature, not all strobes have the same flash duration. Having a short flash duration is the key to freezing fast action. Some strobe lights do not have their flash duration speeds published but, in general, increased power means the flash will not only be brighter, but the flash duration will also be longer.
To start off I have flagged the pictures that I would like to use and crossed off the ones that I don’t like as much.
Secondly I pressed the flagged button on the dropdown box so the pictures that I didn’t need are not visible and I can only see the ones that I would like to work with.
Then i pressed the X and Y button to compare two images, you can also zoom into details by using the magnifying glass which helps you to compare the details. and see what one has better focus or better lighting.
then I started editing the pictures, e.g. changing that saturation and the texture and just generally playing around with the settings to see which was more appealing to me.
I then exported the photo into my folder twice once at 2000 pixels and once at 4000 pixels. I did this so I have two pictures at different sizes
Then picked out the different neutral tones that where in the picture by using the colour picker
Still life is derived from the Dutch word ‘stilleven’. Originating in the 17th century during the popularity for paintings of objects throughout Europe. The term ‘still life’ defines art that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world. e.g. fruits, flowers, baskets, bowls, etc. There are probably about 4 main categories of still life; flowers, banquet or breakfast, animals, symbolic. Symbolic still life refers to art that shows an ordinary object which will portray a deeper meaning.
Pieter Claesz – Still life with a Skull and a Writing Quill (painting)
Still life photograph taken by Garreth Paul
Paul Cézanne – Still life with Quince, Apples, and Pears (painting)
Vanitas
A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death.
Jan Jansz. Treck – Vanitas Still Life
Memento mori
Vanitas are closely related to memento mori still lifes which are pieces of art that portray the shortness and fragility of life. Memento mori is a Latin phrase which translates ‘remember you must die’. They include symbolic objects like skulls and extinguished candles. Other examples of symbols include; musical instruments, wine and books to represent the explicitly of vanity.
Still life photography is “a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects.” or just inanimate objects in front of a camera.
These inanimate objects can be anything ranging from flowers and plants to food and man-made objects.
STILL LIFE TIMELINE
Still life artwork had origins in the ancient Egyptians and Roman times as well as having appearances during the Middle ages and Renaissances eras. Paintings in ancient Egypt mainly consisted of common foods and objects but historians believe they had a much deeper meaning.
A detail of an offerings scene from the burial chamber of Menna (c. 1422-1411 BCE)
Still life is derived from the Dutch word ‘stilleven’ which was made in the 17th century when the popularity of objects in paintings increased throughout Europe. Still life photography originally arose during the 20th century with art photographers such as Baron Adolf de Meyer making it more popular.
Flower basket(between 1640 and 1684) by Jan van den Hecke
Modern art still life was brought back with art movements such as Impressionism where artist like Vincent Van Gogh made a new meaning for the genre.
Its with the immense rise of modern still life art and the wonders of photography that still life photography was born.
WHAT IS VANITAS?
Vanitas – Latin for ‘vanity’ – is symbolic works of art showing the transition from life to death along with themes of: symbols of arts and sciences (books, maps, and musical instruments), wealth and power (purses, jewellery, gold objects), and earthly pleasures (goblets, pipes, and playing cards); symbols of death or transience (skulls, clocks, burning candles, soap bubbles, and flowers); and, sometimes, symbols of resurrection and eternal life (usually ears of corn or sprigs of ivy). It was a common genre during the 16th and 17th century and originated in the Netherlands, evolving from simple pictures of skulls and other symbols of death.
WHAT IS MEMENTO MORI?
Memento mori – Latin for ‘remember that you [have to] die’ – symbolises the inevitability of death. Items typically found in the pictures are skulls, hourglasses, clocks, candles, fruits, and flowers. The memento mori genre rose to popularity during the 17th century, a religious age where almost everyone believed that life on Earth was just a preparation for the afterlife.
WHAT KIND OF METAPHORS AND SYMBOLS ARE USED IN STILL LIFE AND WHY?
Still life can be interpreted and seen in many different ways but the main symbolism includes:
Fruit: religion (forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden), pleasure, lust
Skulls: life, death, morality
Candles: death, God (light of Christ), loss
Flowers: life, growth, danger (poisonous types), love (red rose)
Henry Fox Talbot – Latticed Window, 1835
