Still life photography encompasses everything that is an inanimate object in front of a camera.Still life is a unique genre of photography. One thing that makes it so special is that often the subjects aren’t very interesting. They’re just ordinary objects that you normally wouldn’t pay much attention to.
Here are three example of still life photography. As you can see in all three images there are basic items (in these particularly food) they are infront of plain backgrounds. Most still life images have a narrow depth of field, only focusing on the objects in the image.
modernist still life
The most significant sub genre of photography that conveys inanimate subject matter—typically everyday things, whether created by nature or by man—lively and profoundly is still-life photography.
These are examples of modernist still life
contemporary still life
Contemporary still life art is defined by the representation of objects with a double characteristic. They are inanimate and they make part of daily life. Many artists seize and push this to its paroxysm, even to the point of bias.
These are examples of contemporary 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.
what is Memento Mori?
an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, such as a skull.
WHAT KIND OF METAPHORS AND SYMBOLS ARE USED IN STILL LIFE AND WHY?
some common objects used in still life that symbolize something:
Fruit/fruit bowls- symbolize variety of religious and mythical symbols.
The word Photography literally means ‘drawing with light’, which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw.
However, photography essentially is the process of recording an image – a photograph – on light sensitive film or, in the case of digital photography, via a digital electronic or magnetic memory.
where, when and how did it all start?
Photography, as we know it today, began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.
The photo is seen to capture the view outside of Joseph’s window.captured here is the first ever coloured photograph
The Tartan Ribbon
The tartan ribbon, the world’s first color photo was produced in 1861 by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. The image was created by photographing the tartan ribbon three times through red, blue, and yellow filters, then recombining the images into one color composite.
The first photographic technologies were produced during the 1830s and 40s. The invention of photography would revolutionize culture and communication in the West forever. For the first time, images of ‘real’ life could be captured for posterity and sent around the world, this was the original purpose of photography.
Louis Daguerre
French painter and physicist who invented the first practical process of photography, known as the daguerreotype.
Henry Fox Talbot
He is best known for his development of the calotype, an early photographic process that was an improvement over the daguerreotype of the French inventor Louis Daguerre.
Richard Maddox
Dry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871, and had become so widely adopted by 1879 that the first dry plate factory had been established.
what is the purpose of photography?
Essentially, the purpose of photography is to communicate and document moments in time, you are able to capture still life and hold that image with yourself. Photography is so beneficial to us as we can use it in so many different ways.
why is photography important today?
Photography has the power to inspire many people. An inspiration that could lead to a change for the better. It’s also a visual learning tool that helps non-verbal people communicate. Photography is important because it opens a view into a person’s mind and allows them to convey messages.
Photography is important because we can document something and have it forever. Photography lets us see something we may never have noticed otherwise. Photography is history and allows us to learn and visualize what life was like in the past, or even show ideas of what life will be like in the future.
Photography is used everywhere, on the news, on TV, on social media, newspapers, books, magazines, the internet and so on. It is also looked at in a scientific way; this is because scientists would have no idea what things such as cells look like if it weren’t for photography, they wouldn’t be able t prove or show anything.
DAVID CAMPANY
Considering his assertion that: ‘photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators.’
I believe that David Campany examines the seemingly ordinary act of looking at a photograph. Unpredictable and inscrutable, images, he argues, are anything but mundane. In this quote he is basically proposing that there is a deeper meaning behind just a photograph.
Leap into the void
Leap into the void is an example of where photography can be interpreted in many different ways. Viewers may feel fear but be intrigued to keep reading into the image and the story behind it. Some may believe this is a live image of what happened, but instead is a set up staged picture. Two images were taken one with men ready to catch him in tar-pooling and then he was cut out and put into empty image creating a documentary photography. It was in this mass-produced form that the artist’s seminal gesture was communicated to the public and also notably to the Vienna Activists. The photograph may have some representation of the world at the time in the 1960s.
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.
still life photography examples^
still life painting example
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.
Baron Adolf de Meyer still life photograph
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.”
Still life is a style of photography that is used to display inanimate objects. Usually a selection of objects are used like the photo displayed above. Many things have to be considered to create a good still life style photograph for example, symmetry, object placement and lighting. Another important factor is background. It is important to use a plain background, as to not take away from the inanimate objects used. There are two types of still life, created still life and found still life. Still life is not only used for photography but also painting. Here is an example:
Still Life Photography Timeline
16th and 17th century– Paintings of inanimate objects became popular in Europe
18th century– floral displays, kitchen pictures, food, religious, symbolic still life photography became popular. Live animals became a part of these displays used for still life. Jean-Baptiste Oudry used textures of fur and feathers on simple backgrounds.
19th century– with the upcoming of European Academies which had a huge role in academic art, still life began to decrease in popularity. Emotion and mood becomes a more central part of still life.
20th century– still life continued to evolve, with abstract paintings and photography beginning to gain interest. Such as Jackson Pollocks paintings. Henri Matisse used bold outlines and bright colours.
21st century– evolves into using even video and sound to create these still life pieces. Some artists even used whole galleries for these still life pieces! Computer generated graphics have also developed into still life photography.
Vanitas
Vanitas is still life art which has a variety of symbolic objects which are made to remind the audience how they are mortal and of the worthlessness of worldly goods and pleasures.
this is an example of Vanitas
Memento Mori
Memento Mori means “remember that you die”. It is a style of still life that reminds you that death is inevitable.
Metaphors and symbols used in still life
Metaphors and symbols can be used in still life to display deep feelings and fears (topics such as death) It can also be used to symbolise a place, such as the beach or a woodland or food, nature and more. It can display a lot through the feelings these objects create to different viewers.
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.
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:
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, kitchen still life.
Marion Buccella, vintage still life.
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.
Richard Kuiper, plastic still life.
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.
Mat Collishaw, last meal on death row.
Mat Collishaw, last meal on death row.
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.
