Still Life

What is Still Life?

Still life is a form of photography used for the description of inanimate small group of objects, in front of a camera. This genre gives the photographer more ideas in the arrangement of design elements within a composition compared to other photographic genres, such as landscape or portrait photography. The photographer has more control over the lighting and composition of the image.

Here are some examples of still life photography, in these images you can see the background of most of the images are dark creating a narrow depth of field focusing on the objects carefully arranged.

History of Still life

What is Vanitas?

A still-life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability.

Some of the standard elements in vanitas paintings, usually reflecting wealth and death, include books, playing cards, maps, wilting flowers, fruit, goblets of wine, jewellery, hourglasses, skulls, and recently extinguished candles. The way the objects are placed create an ominous feel to the photographs.

What is Memento Mori?

Memento Mori is an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, such as a skull. 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. These kinds of images are said to breath more life into our lives.