Still life is inanimate objects (objects that cannot move).
Examples of still life paintings and photography:
Provide a chronological timeline of still life photography.
Still life has been well known ever since around 1504 when it was first invented by an Italian Early Renaissance painter Jacopo de Barbari, however, it did not officially become it’s own genre until the 17th century this was known as the “golden age” of still life painting. Later on Still life had then been adopted by photographers during the 19th century.
The first still life photograph was taken by a man named Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre.
Analysis of an image using the matrix
Technical: In this image you can see that the photographer has used artificial lighting. They could have used a long aperture as the image is quite sharp and there is a long depth of field, the photo is also equally balanced. There is an equal balance of warm and cool colours and a fair amount of contrast between the different objects and butterflies.
Visual: The image is very bright and has vibrant colours, as well as a range of different shapes and organic forms. All the objects are 3D and not flat, there is also little shadow seen. The objects have been spread out most likely to use up most of the space or to keep the butterflies apart from each other. The objects have also been arranged so that some are more forward and some are more pushed back which gives the image more depth.
Krista van der Niet
What is Vanitas?
Vanitas is a symbolic work of art that shows the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. It also includes other symbols such as musical instruments, wine, and books.
What is Memento Mori?
Memento Mori is artwork that reminds the viewer of the shortness and fragility of life (inevitability), This can be portrayed using symbols such as skulls and extinguished candles, this could also be shown through an hour glass like the image on the right.
What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why?
Symbols are used to remind viewers of death, the fragility of human life, and the brevity of our existence through objects, as well as presenting a moral message through them. They can also be used to add meaning to photographs.
Below are some symbols used in photography and the meaning behind them:
my first experiment with editing photos and adobe Lightroom.
here i have experimented with a few different types of effects on still life’s i took earlier in the week if i need to achieve similar effects in the future i will refer to this post.
above I attempted to use adobe Lightroom too create a soft grey scale image, I believe I achieved this effect well considering its a first attempt utilising the recourses shown above.
due to the nature of the objects in this photo i wanted to create a vintage effect in the images above and bellow.
in the image above i went for a grey scale effect and although i managed to create an image with depth it didn’t provide the “coming off the page” effect i wanted to achieve with this vintage style of edition so bellow i experimented with still giving the perception of a grey scale photo but attempted to bring forward some duller colours to bring to image into more of an interesting colour rage to perceive and think about.
here i worked to create a blurry an almost out of focus effect with Lightroom in order to make the war related items seem far off and hazy to represent the death throughout war and bring forward a “heaven” like effect.
above is a still life with war related items,
i wanted to create a dulled image as if yellowed with time and experience, i also brought forward the sharpness if the image to give almost a “grainy” effect as if taken with a poor quality camera .
above i began experimenting with creating more abstract edits with my images, i really enjoy the style of this image and think i will begin to incorporate it in more of my word if appropriate, i enjoy the alien effect of the image.
above i continued experimenting with tints to create an abstract effect although i find this image interesting it is too flat to the screen.
Still life is a painting/ drawing of an arrangement of objects. These typically include fruits and flowers and other objects that contrast with those textures e.g. bowls and glassware. Still life pictures are often rich with symbolic depth and meaning. It first emerged as an independent genre in the early 1600s in Dutch and Northern European paintings.
Image analysis:
I think this photograph is interesting but also intimidating to look at due to the dark colours and skull, potentially symbolising death.
The various gold objects, book and guitar give me the impression that whoever owned these items was potentially rich and might have passed away (hence the random placement of the objects suggesting to me that the owner didn’t have time to arrange them properly). The objects being unorganised may also represent how we take for granted time and let things pile up until you realise you don’t have enough time to organise them and leave it for others to clean up. This idea can also be seen by the candle which has been blown out, implying the person who owned these objects time was up sooner than they expected.
I think the photograph was potentially taken in natural lighting coming from a window due to the light hitting the objects from the left in a non overbearing way. Most of the objects and table have a smooth like texture furthering the idea of wealth as it is like the objects are perfect and unflawed.
Overall, I like this photograph as I think it allows the person who’s viewing it to interpret it in their own way and come up with a story behind the picture and its meaning. The clarity and quality of the photograph is also very good.
Still Life photography Timeline:
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.
What is Vanitas?
Vanitas is 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?
Memento Mori is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. It is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘remember you must die’.
Metaphors and symbols used in still life:
Many of the objects depicted in still life images are symbolic of some quality of the Virgin Mary or another religious figure (for example, the lily stands for purity), while other objects may remind the viewer of an edifying concept such as worldly vanity or temperance.
Some common symbols in Still Life paintings include:
In this photo we can see that the objects in the background is blurry, this is because the aperture is low meaning the depth of field is shallow. This makes the main subject of the photo (i.e. the plane) a lot sharper and easier to focus on. The faster the shutter speed, the faster the photo takes which means that the motion of the plane has been frozen as it is spinning.
Whereas, in this photo there is a wide depth of field because the aperture is higher than the first photo. This means everything is in focus, including the background and the objects that are further away. Using a slower shutter speed means that any moving object will be blurred, which is shown here.
Throughout the couple of lessons, my class and I took photographs with different camera modes, angles and lighting qualities. I brought photographs from different of my family background e.g. photographs when my mum and grandmother wee younger, myself as a child (nostalgia) and childhood and memorable photographs in general which are special to me. I tried to adjust the photographs to my liking and bringing the different settings like ISO, shutter speed, aperture and other manual settings we played around with. My mum mentioned that I had scribbled on the further left photograph so I as well think of the pen damage as a memorable and funny childhood thought.
In our previous lesson the class was introduced to Adobe Lightroom classic and learned skills such as selecting colour label and making collections and collections set in order to clearly identify where the photographs are and if you prefer one from the other using the contrasting colours.
It is seen in this print screen I started to develop the photographs temperature and the tonality and exposure settings. I didn’t want the photograph to dark yet too light so that the slightly pink features popping through the photograph come out, the slightly pink atmosphere gives the photograph a sweet and positive outlook and feeling when looked on especially on terms of the theme of Nostalgia, looking back on childhood memories and reflecting to the earlier years.
Objects:
As well as taking photographs of arrangement of photos, I took photographs of objects. When composing these photos, I focused on the objects being framed in the centre of the image. I narrowed down/cropped the image so that it is clearer to see the details of the subject and to not have a lot of blank space.
I believe having a photograph of a singular object can make the outlook on it a lot more interesting, mysterious, and a lot more compelling as it may raise a lot of questions: Why is it only the dress? Is the dress abandoned? Is used? What is the backstory of it? What does it tell us as a viewer? Looking at the photograph having only one subject may give the viewer a lot more to say and may give a greater emotional impact.
In this photograph there are three objects included and as it is presented by the rule of thirds, it is clear that the focus is in the centre of the middle column. Many of the darker tones of the photograph are located in the middle creating an atmosphere of emptiness, unsolved matters and enigma.
Above I have presented the photograph without the lines. This photograph consists of three objects instead of just a singular one so the story or backstory behind the object’s meaning may be more developed by the viewer as there’s more to say about it. Questions like: Why do they link? What does the old box have to do with the black hat? What was the odd box used for? How old is the silver mug?
In this photograph, I experimented with other objects and backdrops’ colour schemes (which ones paired better with the undertones of the objects). I paired the skull object, open book and vintage-like patterned vase with a black and orange coloured piece of card so that the shadows and discreet tonalities of the skull especially can come out. I increased the white tonalities so that the lighter areas of the photograph can pop out as well as the clarity and textures as seen on the right image editing selection panel.
In this photograph, I decided to take the image in a landscape formation as the subject expanded in width rather than in height. I find the photograph a good mixture of tonalities and colour scheme as I believe the dusty white/yellow tones of the pages pair well with the orange and black background colour. I believe the outlook on the pages flicking over, especially in this specific photograph where the page in the book has been already flipped further increases the meaning and background of “still life”.
In this photograph, I kept the background and the same colour scheme. I figured that the black and orange scheme would play well with the colours of the pattern and similar warm tones shades on the lamp. I like how the photograph turned out and the highlighted area on the lamp as it appears shiny and gleaming. Anything that I would change in this photograph would be to look first photograph the object with a brighter light so that the photograph doesn’t appear as bright as first and when editing the photograph so that it doesn’t appear even more darker.
In this photograph I combined both elements into a trio, I added the vintage-like lamp from the previous photograph and brought together other unique and one-of-a-kind objects complimenting each other with the colour scheme, pattern and size and shape e.g., if it looks distorted or funky.
The three different objects are positioned closely together and, in the centre, when looking at the rule of thirds. When the object is closely put together the lighting can be seen being presented from the left side of the photograph, there are more shadows presented in the lower right of the photograph clearly showing the light source from one direct area, and the lighting reflects onto all three of the objects in all similar area, the middle to top of each of the items shown.
In this photograph, I have presented another one of the objects in a singular formation as well as with the orange and black back set. I believe if the background would have changed colours, especially by implementing the colour white the photograph wouldn’t have the same effect as it does despite it being under-exposed as it appears quite dark despite the editing and brightening the warm saturated aspects. If I were to change anything with the photograph, I would not change the background I would change the lighting brightness as I believe to make the photograph a bit more effective, I would need to implement a slightly brighter artificial light.
In the image above and images below, I have tried to create different scenarios and formations with unique and abnormal skull figures to make different stories and through them images to have different meanings. In all the skull-similar images I experimented with directions and where the shadows would face to create a specific outlook on the photographs shown.
For these photographs, I went into the photography studio and I set up a tripod to enable to put the camera onto. I used a tripod so that I could get a stable snapshot of my objects. I used a perfume bottle, silver bracelets and a dainty, silver watch. These objects are nostalgic to me because they all remind me of my gran as she always used this perfume, the sent reminds me of her along with the silver jewellery to which she would take a big interest in. I put the objects in positions that I figured would look nice. I used cool toned lighting to take this picture because it went well with the silver and the blue. I also used the reflects on either side of the objects to prevent any shadows, and what I found out by doing this it that the reflectors also made the colour of the background the colour of the bottle even though the original background was white.
These are my best images from the photoshoot. I like these images in particular because I really like how they look very pristine and sharp. There is no shadows or creases in the background which portrays a clean aesthetic which also refers back to my gran who was a very clean lady.
