Still Life

HISTORY OF THE STILL LIFE

Flower Studies, 2016

Still life is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects.

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.

There is an inextricable link between photography and light. Photography relies on light to illuminate the subject and to create the image. Here, the effects of light, reflection and shade are the main element of each composition. Natural or artificial light is manipulated and captured so that its changing nature becomes the main focus of the photograph.

William Henry Fox Talbot (b. UK 1800-1877)

The Oriel Window, 1835

This mysterious view through the diamond-paned oriel window of Talbot's home is one of the earliest photographs in existence—a remarkable relic of the inventor's earliest attempts to make pictures solely through the action of light and chemicals. He brushed a piece of writing paper with salt and silver nitrate and placed it in a small wooden camera stationed on a mantel opposite the window for an exposure that may have lasted hours. The image is tonally reversed—a negative, though the term did not yet exist—as the paper darkened most where it recorded the bright light of the windows.

Metmuseum.org

Articles of Glass, 1844

Insect Wings as Seen in Solar Microscope, 1840

Roger Fenton (b. UK 1819-1869)

Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit, 1860

Edward Weston (b. USA 1886 - 1958)

Still Life with Bananas and Oranges, 1927

Pepper No. 30, 1930

To clearly express my feeling for life with photographic beauty, present objectively the texture, rhythm, form in nature, without subterfuge or evasion in technique or spirit, to record the quintessence of the object or element before my lens, rather than an interpretation, a superficial phase, or passing mood-- this is my way in photography.

So wrote Edward Weston in 1927, the year in which he made this still life composition. The skin of the fruit is rendered in precise detail, with the bruises and marks on the bananas becoming graphic strokes of the camera's "brush." The pocked surface of the citrus fruit is also clearly delineated, while the orange's center reveals an anomalous organic form.
Getty.edu

1920s, Edward Weston looked at nature for its poetry and metaphor. His photograph of a pepper, twisting in the dramatic light of his studio like intertwining bodies, shows the vegetable in all of its sensuousness. Weston once stated that the goal of his art was to reveal “The Thing Itself . . . to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.” This idea of looking at the symbolic meaning of form while taking “straight,” sharply focused images was foundational for photographers favoring a more subjective approach in the middle decades of the 20th century, particularly in the United States.

MFAH.org

Andre Kertesz (b. Hungary 1894 - 1985)

Bowl with Sugar Cubes, 1928

While living in Paris as a young photographer during the 1920s, Kertész became intrigued by still life, a motif that he continually returned to throughout his long career. Bowl with Sugar Cubes demonstrates his interest in the compositional possibilities of layering basic geometric forms on top of one another--three rectangles in a circle (sugar cubes and a bowl) and a circle in a square (the bowl and the cropped printing paper). Visual sophistication is achieved through his adroit use of simple objects and dramatic lighting.

Getty.edu

Science and Museum.org

Ori Gersht (b. Israel 1967-)

Still Image of Pomegranate, 2006

Juan Cotan "Quince Cabbage Melon, and Cucumber" 1602 (oil on canvas)

Is your work a commentary on the violence we see in the world around us?
My work is not so much a direct commentary as it is an open-ended observation of the absurdities around us. I’m thinking about scenarios where, in one place, there is a very bloody war, while in another place people are living a comfortable, decadent lifestyle. I’m intrigued by that kind of parallel existence, and how one sometimes weaves into the other.

What other ways does your work go beyond the traditional still life?
I’m capturing events that are happening at the rate of 1,600 frames per second, moments that are too quick for the mind to process. The film was shot with an HD digital camera, so there is no materiality to the footage - it goes as data to a hard drive. It’s very important that in the outcome of my film, I have this suspension of disbelief where the viewer is deceived to think, for a short moment, that what they’re looking at is a painting.

Why did you choose a pomegranate to shoot?
The reference in this instance is a Juan Cotán painting [“Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber,” 1602] but I decided to use a pomegranate [instead of a quince]. I think that it has to do with the visual imagination of the pomegranate, how it will bleed, how these multi-seeds will keep spraying thought the frame. I suppose in retrospect that it’s also the relationship that the pomegranate has to a grenade. But the choice is not very rational, you know, sitting and thinking that this means this or that means that. I can say that the image presented itself and I followed it through.

How else is ‘Pomegranate’ a twist on Juan Cotan’s work?
I was interested in the static image of the Juan Cotán painting in relation to what Harold Edgerton was doing at MIT in the 50s, when he managed to freeze high-speed movement in the photograph of the bullet that goes though an apple. I take those two polemic moments and attempt to freeze a moment that is so fast and present it as a static photograph. So I was trying to negotiate those extremes.

Smithsonianmag.com

Abelardo Morell (b. USA 1948- )

Abelardo Morell was born in Havana, Cuba in 1948. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1962. Morell received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and his MFA from The Yale University School of Art. He has received an honorary degree from Bowdoin College in 1997 and from Lesley University in 2014.

Book Damaged by Water, 2001

Down the Rabbit Hole, 1998

Pam Fox (b. USA - )

Windsock, 2002

Imago Ignota

"I view photography as a tool that can guide the transformation of perception and extend our vision beyond that of the physical world. I am interested in the mysterious, that which is difficult to perceive in our normal day to day lives. Remembered sensory experience, psychic energies and transcendence are investigated using these pieces of antique, abandoned scientific equipment and specimens." -Pam Fox

Link to Images

Caleb Charland (b. USA - )

Fruit Battery Still Life (Citrus), 2012

Back to Light
My practice as an artist combines a scientific curiosity with a constructive approach to making pictures. I utilize everyday objects and fundamental forces to illustrate experiences of wonder. For me, wonder is a state of mind somewhere between knowledge and uncertainty. An energy vibrates in that space between our perceptions of the world and the potential the mind senses for our interventions within the world.
My current body of work, Back to Light, expands upon a classic grade school science project, the potato battery. By inserting a galvanized nail into one side of a potato and a copper wire in the other side a small electrical current is generated. The utter simplicity of this electrical phenomenon is endlessly fascinating for me. Many people have had the experience of drawing power from fruit in the classroom, and it never ceases to bring a smile to the face or a thought to the mind. This work speaks to a common curiosity we all have for how the world works as well as a global concern for the future of earth’s energy sources.
Since all this is a dream my hope is that these photographs function as micro utopias by suggesting and illustrating the endless possibilities of alternative and sustainable energy production. The cycle that begins with the light of our closest star implanting organic materials with nutrients and energy, is re-routed in these images, Back to Light, illuminating earth once again.

Yukiko Masuda (b. Japan -)

Flower Studies, 2016

“Try experimenting with different objects for a clean background, such as a simple white board, some natural linen cloth, a wooden table or a black board,” advises Masuda. Here, green stems and leaves are vibrant against a slate-colored backdrop.

For the best photos, lighting is key: “I usually take photos using only natural light from a window,” Masuda tells iPhone Photography School. “I control the amount of light coming in through the window with a board. If it’s too bright, I cover the window with it, allowing me to get the right amount of light on my subject.”

Gardenista.com