Still life is an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware.

Still life originated during the early 1600s Dutch and Northern European paintings. Many of the objects symbolise religion and morality. Colonialism played a part in still life since it means, control by one power over a dependent area or people. This led to the suppression of traditional African art forms and the promotion of European art. In the early (and modern) still life work, you can see burnt candles, human skulls, dying flowers, fruits and vegetables, broken chalices, jewellery, crowns, watches, mirrors, bottles, glasses and vases. These could be symbolic of the brevity of life, power, beauty and wealth. The most common objects to be seen are skulls and hourglasses which could symbolise death and the fragility of life, the hourglass connects with the skull to portray the time that you have left.

Pieter Claesz was a Dutch painter of the 17th century. He painted still-life images. His range of subjects included breakfast settings with glass or metal objects painted in a monochromatic colour palette and layouts of different objects. The image below is one of his paintings.

Experimenting with the camera simulator

This first image was taken using a short shutter speed to capture a sharp view of the propeller stopped and not blurry from spinning. However, his image is not good as I haven’t adjusted the other settings like the aperture and exposure metre.

For this photo, I changed the aperture and ISO to balance out the exposure metre. This meant that the image now has more colour and is brighter. The photo has a short depth of field and focuses only on the plane meaning the background is blurred. The settings I used were: shutter speed – 1/4000, aperture – 2.8 and ISO – 6400.

This image has a good exposure and the picture is bright and the whole image is in focus. For this, I used a lower shutter speed, 1/4, which mean that the moving propeller was not captured.

Q1: What is the etymology (origin & history) of the word photography?

Writing with light.

Capturing light.

Painting with light.

Filming light.

Q2: What year was the first photograph made in camera

1739 (Joseph Wright)

1839 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)

1826 (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce)

1904 (Salvadore Dali)

Q3: When did the first photograph of a human appear?

1874 (Julia Margeret Cameron)

1838 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)

1856 (Henry Mullins)

1939 (Ropert Capa)

Q4: Who made the first ‘selfie’

Kim Kardashian (2015)

Robert Cornelius (1839)

Cindy Sherman (1980)

Claude Cahun (1927)

Q5: When did the first colour photograph appear?

1907 (Lumière brothers)

1961 (Andy Warhol)

1935 (Kodachrome)

1861 (James Clerk Maxwell)

Q6: What do we mean by the word genre?

A study of an artwork

A depiction in art

A style or category of art

A creative process in art

Q7: What do we mean by the genre of still-life?

In image where a person is sitting still and not moving.

An arrangement of flowers.

A picture of food.

An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world.

Q8: What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement?

20sec

To capture moving objects

To record reality

To affirm photography as an art form

To be scientific

Q9: How do we describe the term documentary photography?

30sec

Capture images that truthfully portray people, places and events.

Staging images for maximum effect.

Provide in-depth information about a subject over a long period time.

An interpretation of reality as witnessed by the photographer.

Q10: What is exposure in photography?

To expose hidden elements in our society.

To record fast moving objects.

To capture bright light.

The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor.

Q11: What controls exposure on your camera?

Depth of field, composition, distance to subject.

Aperture, focal length, ISO.

Aperture, shutter speed, ISO.

Shutter speed, distance to subject, depth of field.

Q12: What control on our camera records moving objects?

Aperture

White balance

Shutter

ISO

Q13: How do we explain depth of field?

How much of your image is in focus.

To photograph from a high vantage point.

A view across a field.

A deadpan approach to image making.

Q14: What factors affect Depth of Field?

Shutter speed, distance from camera to subject, and sensitivity to light.

Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length.

Lens focal length shutter speed and lens aperture.

Sensitivity to light, shutter speed and lens focal length.

Q15: What is composition in photography?

Capturing the quality of light.

A piece of music with different instruments.

Staging a portrait with props.

The arrangement of visual elements within the frame.

Q16: What is your understanding of aesthetics in art?

Concerned with the nature of beauty and taste.

It is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.

Aesthetic qualities refer to the way and artwork looks and feels.

Making a critical judgement based on observation and understanding.

Q17: What are contextual studies in photography?

To provide historial, cultural and theoterical understanding of images.

Consider factors outside of the image, as well as inside the frame.

To give an opinion without any research.

To seek a definite answer.

Q18: How many images are captured on average every day worldwide?

1.5 billion

4.7 billion

800 million

6.9 billion

Q19: Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world?

Mona Lisa

Lady Gaga

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara

The Queen (Elizabeth II)

William Eggleston

William Eggleston is an American photographer. His photography is mainly focused with colour but involves street photography too. 

He takes photographs which have a vintage look and makes the colours more bright and vibrant. The settings he uses are mainly places like shopfronts, gas stations and anywhere with signs and bold colours.

This photograph is of a McDonald’s next to a camera shop, these two places are a mix of yellow, orange and red colours and have different signs. The photograph is very bold and vibrant making it eye-catching

Photoshoot 1: Nostalgic Locations

This photoshoot is made up of photographs I took of different locations around Jersey that feel nostalgic to me. I grew up in Jersey which is why i focused this shoot on locations over here. 

When taking my photos, I tried to get different angles and I took photos zooming in and out with the lense.

Photoshoot 2: Nostalgic Objects

For this photoshoot, I photographed objects that are nostalgic for me. I have specific memories that i associate with these objects which i remember very clear, this is why i chose these certain objects. 

To start, I took a photograph of a traffic cone as when I was younger, I dressed up as a traffic cone for Halloween and this has always been a fond memory for me. The other photos have corresponding reasons for them as well. 

Although I didn’t take as many photos as I would’ve liked too, I am happy with the objects that I chose to photograph

Evaluation

I like this photograph of mine of a nostalgic object as the object itself is large rather than smaller like the rest of my images. This O shaped structure is nostalgic as it is in a place I would always go to as a child. 

This photograph captures the whole object and also the shadow coming off of it. I think I could have taken the photo a little better, for instance, I should have ventured the object more in the middle rather than a little to the side.

This photograph, I think, was a good picture to take to associate with Nostalgia. This is because as a child, I was always intrigued by the clock and the songs it plays. 

I think this photo is good as it captures some street photography. The only thing I don’t like about the photograph is that there is a person standing in it and the way that the sun intrudes in the corner. If I were to retake this photo, I would try to avoid this.