Beauties of the common tool is a portfolio by Walker Evans, published in 1995. Evans completely flattens the depth of the images, normally disregarding shadows leaving the image as all but a simple tool.
Darren Harvey- Regan, blurring the boundaries between photography and sculpture, Exeter-born his work challenges us to scrutinise the divide between an object and its representation. His portraits of welded mismatched industrial tools appear pristine and polished, captured on a film like a collection of precious and revered objects.
Darren Harvey-Regan is a contemporary British artist and photographer known for his work that often explores themes of identity, memory, and the passage of time. He utilizes still life photography and mixed media to create evocative compositions that challenge viewers’ perceptions of reality and the ordinary. His practice often incorporates personal narratives and reflections on memory, using objects and settings to evoke emotions and provoke thought. Harvey-Regan’s work has been exhibited in various galleries and is recognized for its artistic depth and conceptual rigor.
Darren Harvey-Regan’s images often symbolize themes of identity, memory, and the transient nature of life. His use of still life and mixed media allows him to create layered narratives that invite viewers to reflect on personal and collective experiences. Objects in his compositions frequently carry symbolic meaning, representing emotions, memories, or the passage of time.
Through careful arrangement and lighting, his work explores the fragility of existence and the complexities of human perception, prompting contemplation about how we relate to the world around us. Overall, his images serve as a poignant commentary on the interplay between memory, identity, and the objects that populate our lives.
This body of work started with Walker Evans’s Beauties of The Common Tool – a commission for Fortune magazine in 1955. The series is a prime example of photography transitioning towards an accepted artform, using the medium to capture the beauty inherent in seemingly banal and commonplace objects.
A key difference between their works would be that Walker Evans tools are simple, lighting is placed to make them just simple shapes and lines rather than abstract art whereas Darren Harvey-Reagans work differs due to his welding two different tools together leaving the mind to question what the meaning of his work is.
Walker Evans was an influential American photographer known for his documentary style and ability to capture the essence of American life. Born in 1903, he gained prominence during the Great Depression when he worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). His most famous work, “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” features striking portraits and images of impoverished families in the South, revealing the harsh realities of their lives.
Evans was known for his meticulous attention to detail and composition, often using large-format cameras to create images that conveyed both beauty and social commentary. His work extended beyond documentary photography, influencing the fields of art and visual culture. Evans’s legacy continues to resonate, as he is celebrated for his profound ability to document everyday life and the American experience through a humanistic lens.
Walker Evans’s images symbolize the complexity of American life, particularly during the Great Depression. His work captures the struggles and resilience of individuals, emphasizing themes of poverty, identity, and the human experience. Through his meticulous compositions, Evans highlights the dignity and humanity of his subjects, often portraying their environments in ways that reflect broader social and economic conditions.
His photographs serve as powerful social commentary, inviting viewers to confront the realities of hardship while also celebrating the beauty in everyday moments. The use of straightforward, unembellished imagery in his work symbolizes authenticity and truth, making his photographs not just historical documents but also poignant reflections on the human condition. Overall, Evans’s images evoke empathy and provoke thought about social issues, identity, and the passage of time in American society.
My photos:
This would definitely be my own personal take on the photo due to the colour contrast, neither Darren or Walker Evans used colours like this within there work so this would be my own personal take on the ides. This image is a spin on there work, I have still utilized the ides of normal everyday tools but just used a different background so that people can see them within a new light.
This photographer has a very clear white background, making the simplicity of the tool stand out, leaving nothing else to the eye apart from this singular paintbrush. This photo does look a little bit more like there work but I would personally say still has my spin on the ides of there photographs.
Although this is nothing like a hammer or a pair of scissors I would say this looks like most like there work, the ideas of stacking the tape upon each other leaves more to the image but still only really has one simple image.
Here I was inspired by Walker Evans, as he had taken pictures of tools and made the photos black and white.
Walker Evans was a renowned American photographer known for his black-and-white images documenting the impact of the Great Depression. As an artist, Evans disliked the formal photography like that of Alfred Stieglitz. Instead, he aimed to capture the quotidian beauty and diaristic events of daily life.
Walker Evans photos:
For my photoshoot I decided to use paint brushes as I found them in different colours and sizes. This therefore makes my photos unique and special to me. Most of the artists looked at use more common tools such as hammers and screwdrivers, so I wanted to use something unique and inadequate to really show that I am engaged in this work, and how I can make it more my photoshoot and not just copying.
My Photos:
I really like how this has turned out as there are shadows under my tools, this makes the photo look more realistic and adds a lift to the shape of the tool. This photoshoot was quite easy in the sense that I didn’t have to position the tools in a specific way since I wanted to make the shoot more personal and specific to me .I really like the background colour as it adds a warm tone. These warm colours evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility. It makes me feel some sort of comfort and sense of relief while a cold bright tone could make me feel quite upset as they can also trigger feelings of sadness and indifference. Therefore, I really am pleased in the way my photos have turned out.
If I were to do this photoshoot again I would have liked to move the brushes around to try and experiment what they could look like in different positions. This would open up my imagination and help me create a better understanding of why these tools are so eye catching and inspiring. I feel like some of my photos look blurry almost vivid which completely ruins the theme I was going for. Personally my favourite photo would be the middle on as it has a better angle then the rest and really defines the shape and colour of the paint brush.
Still life photography is a genre of photography, which is similar to painting, it is used for the deception if inanimate objects, typically a small group of objects. Still life photography can be categorized into two categories: “Created Still Life”, in which the photographer arranges the objects around, and “Found Still Life”, where the photographer captures already made arrangements.
Still life photography is a genre that focuses on capturing inanimate objects, often arranged in aesthetically pleasing compositions. This type of photography can feature a diverse range of subjects, including natural elements like fruits and flowers, as well as everyday man-made items such as books and glassware. The photographer carefully considers aspects like composition, lighting, and texture to create visually compelling images that evoke emotion or convey a narrative. By manipulating these elements, still life photography allows for artistic expression and exploration of themes, often emphasizing the beauty and intricacies of the ordinary.
Examples:
Olivia Parker
For more than 40 years Olivia Parker has created alluring, poetic still life photographs that transform the everyday and enchant the familiar. My favourite set of photographs from Olivia Parker would be “Toys and Games, 1993-2000” Which includes simple everyday objects, but makes minds think and see them in a different way.
Olivia Parker is an American photographer known for her innovative approach to still life photography. She gained recognition for her unique style that often combines traditional still life techniques with contemporary themes, using elements like light, shadow, and color to create evocative images. Parker’s work frequently explores the relationship between objects and their environments, and she has been influential in the realm of fine art photography. Her photographs have been exhibited in galleries and featured in various publications, making her a notable figure in the field.
Timeline of Still Life photography
The English term “Still Life” originates from within the 17th century when still-life art was at the height of European popularity. Still-life has existed since 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 there concepts. Today still life photography is still very popular among many photographers. These artists appreciate the challenge of aesthetically capturing the beauty of ordinary items.
Still life photography began in the 1830s with the advent of the daguerreotype, as early photographers experimented with inanimate subjects to capture their beauty. By the 1860s, artists like Julia Margaret Cameron were elevating the genre, using soft focus and dramatic lighting. The early 1900s saw pioneers like Edward Weston exploring abstract forms, while the 1920s introduced commercial applications in advertising. The mid-20th century featured influential figures like Irving Penn, whose bold compositions shaped modern aesthetics. In the 1980s, postmodernism brought new concepts and digital experimentation, leading to vibrant color photography in the 1990s. Today, still life photography continues to evolve, blending traditional techniques with contemporary themes, reflecting identity and consumerism in the modern world.
What is Vanitas
Vanitas is a genre of art which mainly uses symbolism to show the transience of life, and the certainty of death. The painting involve still life imagery of transitory items. This genre began in the 16th century and continued into the 17th but since then it has lost its popularity by a lot.
Vanitas is a genre of art and a theme in still life that reflects on the transience of life and the inevitability of death. Originating in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in Dutch painting, vanitas artworks often feature symbolic objects that represent mortality and the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures. Common motifs include skulls, hourglasses, wilting flowers, and decaying fruit, alongside items like books, musical instruments, and candles that symbolize knowledge, beauty, and life. The overarching message of vanitas is to remind viewers of the impermanence of life, encouraging contemplation of what truly matters beyond material possessions.
What is Memento Mori?
Memento Mori is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a remined of the inevitable death. The concept has its roots in the philosophers of antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards.
Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning “remember that you must die.” It serves as a reminder of human mortality and the inevitability of death. This theme has been prevalent in art, literature, and philosophy throughout history, encouraging individuals to reflect on the transient nature of life and the importance of living meaningfully.
In art, memento mori often appears in still life and portraiture, featuring symbols like skulls, hourglasses, withered flowers, and decaying objects. These elements serve as reminders of life’s impermanence and the futility of earthly pursuits. The concept invites viewers to contemplate their own mortality and prioritize what truly matters, emphasizing spiritual values over material concerns.
What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why?
Fruits are some of the most ubiquitous subjects in still-life paintings over the centuries. Not only does a basket of fruit offer the artist a variety of colours and textures to utilize, but it also offers a variety of religious and mythical symbols.
Made famous by Dutch and Flemish artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, vanitas still-life paintings express the transience of life and the futility of materialism. This tradition also provided a justification for painting beautiful and expensive objects instead of more overtly moralizing subjects. One of the more heavy-handed symbols that appears in vanitas still life paintings is the skull, which is a striking reminder of the certainty of death. Such a symbol is called a Memento Mori, a Latin phrase meaning “Remember that you will die.”
In ancient times, it was believed that a person’s soul was contained in their reflection. Mirrors have been included in a variety of paintings throughout history. They can represent either truth and self-assurance or vanity and distortion—the difference depends on who is looking at their reflection. A broken mirror is universally recognized as a bad omen.
In still life photography and art, various metaphors and symbols are used to convey deeper meanings, often reflecting themes of mortality, beauty, and the passage of time. Here are some common symbols and their significance:
Skulls: Often used as a direct reminder of mortality (memento mori), skulls symbolize the inevitability of death and the fleeting nature of life.
Hourglasses: Represent the passage of time and the idea that time is limited, encouraging reflection on how one spends their life.
Flowers: Fresh flowers can symbolize beauty and life, while wilted or decaying flowers signify transience and the inevitability of aging and death.
Fruit: Ripe fruit can represent vitality and abundance, whereas overripe or rotten fruit serves as a reminder of decay and the impermanence of pleasure.
Candles: Often symbolize life and the soul, with their flickering flames representing the fragility of existence and the approach of death as they burn down.
Books: Can represent knowledge, wisdom, and the passage of time. An open book might suggest ongoing learning, while a closed book could symbolize lost knowledge or the finality of life.
Musical Instruments: Symbolize the beauty of life and creativity but can also represent the ephemeral nature of music and art, which exist only in the moment.
Glass Objects: Their transparency can symbolize fragility and the idea that life is delicate, while reflections might represent the complexity of perception and reality.
Clocks: Serve as a reminder of the relentless march of time, urging viewers to consider how they allocate their moments.
These symbols and metaphors enrich still life compositions, inviting viewers to explore themes of existence, beauty, and the inevitability of change, ultimately encouraging deeper contemplation of life’s meaning.
Why still life?
Still life photography gives you an opportunity to play with light, texture, materials and subjects in a controlled environment. A lot of still life is simply about experimenting just how creative you can be. It all comes down to intent and context.When it comes to still life photography, “nothing is moving, and you’re in complete control,” according to experienced photographer and teacher Ben Long. He continues, “It’s a fantastic challenge for your compositional skills because it’s entirely about form and a pleasing arrangement of forms within the frame. The image needs to be well balanced and have an interesting geometric play. Everything that you’re doing in the frame is guiding the viewer’s eye.”
Taking still life images allows photographers to explore creative expression through careful composition, lighting, and arrangement of objects, providing a controlled environment to experiment with artistic ideas. This genre enables the conveyance of narratives and themes, such as beauty, mortality, and the passage of time, while highlighting the textures and details of everyday items often overlooked. Additionally, still life photography serves as a valuable practice for honing technical skills and can have commercial applications in product photography. Ultimately, capturing still life can be both an aesthetic pursuit and a means to provoke deeper contemplation, making it a rich and rewarding area of photography.
“Beauties of the Common Tool” was originally published in 1955 by Walker Evans with several photographs of individual tools.
The tool is clearly made of metal which reflects light and creates a clean, elevated appearance which demands respect. Depth is clearly shown with the tools harsh shadows that the lighting provides giving the tool a more complex appearance.
This photograph shows a utility tool raised in front of a plain background. This is a birds eye view with an overhead light and raised so that the shadow is kept to a minimum. This ensures that the tool is shown like you would see it and is clearly in focus showing that the subject is deserving of attention and easily draws the eye.
The photographer made sure that there were no distractions in the photograph by using having a plain colourless background framing the object. This ensures that focus is purely on the tool and forces the viewer to see the subject in an isolated environment and appreciate it in a way they wouldn’t have before.
Response
For this photoshoot I arranged tools in front of a lightbox for a bright white background, this made sure the objects were well lit. The second part used two sheets of card with only the pre-existing natural light. This meant that the images were much darker. To adjust the camera settings was difficult and required the ISO to be largely increased as well as the shutter speed and white balance changed. As a result lots of the photographs looked blue or dark because I had to trying out each option. Only the final 6 were bright and the correct white balance.
To narrow down the selection of photos I compared a few images at a time and selected the better one either with stars of colours. I managed to narrow the images down to 3 photographs highlighted with yellow.
I edited these final two images using the basic tab in develop. I changed the temperature, exposure, highlights etc until I was happy the whites were white and the objects were visible. These both were most similar to Walker Evans since they were taken at a birds eye view.
Final Image
Darren Harvey-Regan
“Beauties of the Common Tool” was created in 2013 by Darren Harvey-Regan inspired by Walker Evans photographs of the same name.
This photograph combines two work tools through editing. They would have been two separate photographs that were joined together down the centre for a a clearline of separation.
I believe that this line was vertical because it purposefully shows both the head and handle of both the tools. This is significant because had the split been horizontal, one of the tools would have been beheaded. This would look more like the photographer was picking and choosing his favourite parts of the tools rather than appreciating both tools for their usefulness. A tool is useful as a whole rather than dismembered parts
Similar to Walker Evans, this photograph is to celebrate and appreciate house tools for what they are. The tools are infront of a plain background as to not draw attention however this time the background is much lighter. I believe this is because the photograph isn’t supposed to be as dramatic, it is brighter and more celebratory. Both the tools have different functions and different appearances but by stitching them together, this shows that they are equal. The tools are significantly darker also which contrasts with the background making them stand out more.
For this image I set the ISO to 100 since the lightbox was really bright and didn’t need any higher. Since it was so bright I also used alow aperture so that only a small amount of the light was allowed into the camera. This meant that the tool would actually be visible. I used 1/13sec shutter speed which was higher than the others to balance out the light slightly and the camera was zoomed to 41mm so that the whole tool was in frame.
Response
For this photograph I used the two Walker Evans photographs in black and white with a frame. Using photoshop I halved the plyers and layered the cropped image on top of the scissors. I tried to line up the round middle for both and arranged the handles on the same half. I think this image works best in black and white.
Walker Evans, was an American photographer and photo journalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are “literate, authoritative, transcendent”. Evans took up photography in 1928, around the time he was living in new York. His influences included Eugene catgut and .August Sandler. In 1930, he published three photographs in the poetry book The Bridge by Hart Crane. In 1931, he made a photo series of Victorian houses in the Boston vicinity sponsored by Lincoln Kirstein.
Walker Evans Photography :
Image analysis :
Walker Evans photography have a narrow depth of field to keep the man in focus. The pictures are in black and white which gives the pictures a dramatic and ominous feel to them.
Darren Harvey-Regan
Darren Harvey-Regan is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. His work has been in Exhibitions and Publications all over the world. His work focuses on photography but has an emphasis on the mediums relationship to language and to sculpture.
Image Analysis :
Darren Harvey-Regan’s photos are very bold and powerful and this picture in particular has a very strong contrast between the block and the shadow. This makes the object used stand out and look more powerful. The use of shape and line in this image makes the object appear more interesting to look at and gives the object a different composition.
How did Walker Evans’ work inspire Darren Harvey-Reagan?
Harvey-Regan first constructed a montage of Evans’s images to make new forms. He then sourced matching tools, cut them in half and re-joined various halves together, with the resulting physical objects being photographed to create his final work.
Comparrison :
Darren Harvey – Reagan :
Walker Evans :
with both walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Reagan you can clearly see that Darren was inspired by walker when getting into still life photography, walkers work is very much real life situations turned into still moments whereas Darren has used objects and slightly altered walkers way of work and created it his own by using non alive objects and different layouts within that category of work.
A still life painting /image is a composition of inanimate objects such as, fruits, crops, flowers, items of prosperity, and household items.
The items in question are usually filled with disguised symbolism and hold a deeper meaning, E.g. a burned-out candle to emphasize mortality, while a lit candle symbolizes light , truth, and knowledge.
The development of still life.
Still life began to develop in the 17th century from northern Europe and the growing prosperity of the European world. The new-found wealth from the age of exploration gave the wealthy new expensive (often perishable) imports they wanted to show off, so they would often commission a painting in an attempt to immortalize it.
Unfortunately, These goods were often collected off the backs of the exploited minorities during the golden age of colonization and the height of the slave trade.
still life continues today not only through painting, but photography.
vanitas
Vanitas began in response to the prosperity in 18th century Holland. From the Latin word meaning vanity, vanitas are images of collections of objects (often fruits, flowers and expensive objects) that are saturated with hidden symbolism, often about morality towards material goods and how worthless they are. These symbols often include things like bubbles: how brief life can be and the capacity of spontaneous death, just like how a bubble pops.
Memento Mori.
Memento Mori is something within a still life portrait that symbolises death. similarly to the bubble, these could be objects such as burned out candles or skulls. The words its self means ‘remember you must die’ all in an attempt to display the novelty of the human life and its fascination with luxury items.
what kind of symbols and metaphors are presented in still life?
Skulls symbolise the certainty of mortality.
Flowers can symbolise life and growth, flowers can also symbolize innocence as well as impermanence
Mirrors display the soul In reflection.
Musical Instruments symbolise beauty and transience.
Silver and gold are luxury In still life paintings.
Both these artist capture photograph’s with a dull/ mysterious meaning behind it. Both artist’s paid careful attention to choice of objects , composition, lighting and exposer. The photographs of Walker Evans told the story of American working-class life with an exacting frankness that was truly revolutionary for its time. He took many photographs of his selected objects and he approached them from different angles or using different cameras. Evan captured the image in the moment, rather than in the darkroom after the fact. Walker Evans was a famous renowned American photographer who was known for his black and white images showing the impact of the Great Depression. However, Darren Harvey is a more modern artist, interested in the concept that photographs do not exist just to show things, but are physical things that become objects themselves. He used a load of different tools and the montaged tools become both beautiful and bizarre objects, in which a ratchet wrench is combined with a pair of pliers.
They both took photos with great meanings , looking carefully at the light and the structure of their objects and the way they structed their photos. They both work in the same area and both have earnt many awards for what they do.
I tried to impersonate theses artists images with my own work and here they are;
I used a different Varity of colours and tools to try make my photos vibrant. I was careful with how I placed the backgrounds and how I angled the tools. There are different tones to these photographs’.
In conclusion
I think that this photo shoot went well with all the colour and different styles of backgrounds, however I think I could’ve made the photos more clear and lit up the room more or even in light room. Although I do like the lay out and how you can move all the colours and pictures around.
Formalism in photography emphasizes elements such as line, colour, shape, texture, and other aspects rather than the subject matter.
The seven basic elements to photographic art and formalism are:
Line – A geometric element that is made up of a moving point which extends along the path of the point.
Lines can be curved, straight or a combination of the two. Lines can be vertical or horizontal or somewhere in between. They can also be solid, dashed, interrupted, implied or psychological.
Shape – The visible characteristics which makeup a particular spatial form.
Shapes are two-dimensional and can be measured by height and width. Shapes can be the outline of an either familiar or an unfamiliar object.
Form – The shape and structure of something as distinguished from its material.
Form can be geometric (regular) and organic. Form is three-dimensional and has an overall height, width and depth.
Texture – The visual or tactile surface characteristics and how something appears and looks.
Texture is able to be smooth or rough, but there are other commonly used descriptions also used such as; soft, slimy, wet, hard, shiny, bumpy, etc. These are often presented in two dimensions, like in photographs.
Colour – A phenomenon of light or a visual perception which allows us to view the appearance of objects and light sources and be able to differentiate otherwise identical objects.
The three properties of colour are hue (description of a colour, e.g. blue, red, etc.), value (brightness or darkness) and saturation (intensity/purity of a colour). Light itself has no perceived colour.
Size – The relative extent of something, the overall dimensions or magnitude of it.
In a photograph, size is relative and can be an illusion. When an unfamiliar object is in the scene, it could be difficult to get an understanding of its size, however, familiar objects in the scene help us determine the scale shown in the photograph.
Depth – The direct linear measurement from front to back.
Most images have a foreground, middle ground, and background. Even a casual photo has a sense of depth due to visual cues. A stronger sense of depth in an image is when the delineation between those “grounds” is stronger.
Definition: The Design, Composition and Lighting are dominant over Subject Matter. The photographer becomes a visual designer whenever a frame is captured.
The main components of formalism are:
Line: lines shown in photos, the directions/angels they go and how that effects the photograph
this imagine by Philipp Klinger is a great example of how intentional lines can effect the atmosphere of an image and demonstrates when lines are the leading formal element if an image.
Shape: acknowledging shape in an image is acknowledging and analysing the at first obvious features of an image.
this image by CRISTIANOGERARDI shows how shape can be used in creative ways to make an image more impactful and interesting.
Form:Form refers to when shape takes on three dimensions. Form is created by shadows and highlights on an object in the photograph.
this image by Juergen Roth shows how good understanding of how to capture lights and darks in a photograph will effect your ability to compose a convincing and interesting photograph.
Texture :the visual quality of the surface of an object, revealed through variances in shape, tone and colour depth.
Texture brings am image to life and add vibrancy to an image
Colour : is a very important aspect of an image in all cases but when it is the main focal point of an image it creates a very interesting a recognisable effect
as demonstrated in tis image by Sarah Polger
Depth how much of your image is in focus. In more technical terms, depth of field is the distance in an image where objects appear “acceptably in focus” or have a level of “acceptable sharpness.”2
symmetry when two halves of an image hold the same weight and give a perfect balance between two sides of your photograph.
