Still-life photography stems from still-life art, which is one of the fundamental genres of Western art. The English term ‘still life’ is derived from the Dutch word stilleven. A still-life painting is a rendering of a group of objects which are still or inanimate, designed to express an allegorical meaning.
Chronological timeline of still life photography
Still-life art has existed from the 17th century until the modern-day, but in the 19th century, artists adopted photography as a new medium for still life art, to express their concepts in a novel format, and thus the still-life photo was born.
Baron Adolf de Meyer 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.
Emil Otto Hoppé is an esteemed British photographer who is known primarily for his portrait photography and travel photography, but he also produced wonderful still-life photography in the 1920s, with a handcrafted style, comparable to Baron Adolf de Meyer’s.
Early photography required long exposure times, and still life provided an ideal subject. Photographers embraced the genre, arranging objects and traditional motifs to create visually pleasing arrangements. These provided an opportunity to test the possibilities of photography through experiments with composition, framing and light; producing photographs that have an enduring influence on contemporary work.
What is meant by Vanitas?
Vanitas paintings communicated a moral or religious message. They particularly emphasised the shortness of life and the inevitability of decline and death. Many objects had complex allegorical or symbolic meanings. These were found in common motifs such as falling petals, decaying fruit, skulls, timepieces, and burning candles.
What is Memento Mori?
Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers.
What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why?
Still life photographs and paintings tend to use symbols to create a deeper meaning for example, fruit is a symbol of life in still life as in Christianity, apples signify temptation and knowledge in reference to the Old Testament account of Eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Grapes symbolize the themes of pleasure and lust associated with bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Pomegranates are associated with persephone, the Greek goddess of spring and queen of the underworld.
Where as, skulls are the symbol of The Certainty Of Mortality as it is a reminder of the certainty of death. Such a symbol is called a Memento Mori, a Latin phrase meaning “Remember that you will die.”
