Photography 3: still life 2024

• Culturele en kunstzinnige vorming
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Photography #3

Still life

Stilleven

Nature Morte

Important genre in painting in the Golden Age in the Netherlands and Flandres.

Painters specialized in different types of still lifes.

'Pronkstilleven' Willem Claez Heda – 1635

Vanitas

Pieter Claesz, 1630

• the brevity of life on earth,
• the imminence of death,
• the worthlessness of earthly riches,
• the futility of earthly pursuits and pleasures.

Because still lifes are in fact “still”, they became photography’s favourite subject back in its earliest days. 

Soon after the creation of the first ever photograph in 1826, it was convenient for pioneer photographers to take pictures of something that’s not moving. The reason was simple and technical enough: exposures were fairly long, so an inanimate object was perfect for the occasion. 

These works tended to resemble still lifes depicted in paintings, so much they even used the same objects and arrangements. As the photographic camera improved, still life was no longer a necessity, but it nevertheless remained one of the most attempted types of photo-making. 

Roger Fenton, 1859

Composition

arranging objects

It is often said that, when it comes to still life photography, its artists don’t really take the photo, rather they make one.

Being the exact opposite of street photography, or even landscape photography, still life provides complete control over what’s going to happen within the frame, from composition, to lighting, colours, mood, even the subject itself. 

Don’t be awestruck with all these rules. Take them as guidelines and use them as supports to improve your learning. There is no need to always stick by the rules. Try out your own style and use these rules as a reference.

Light

Still life photography essentially comes down to the study of lighting, the way rays of it interact with your object, create or eliminate shadows, and help you tell its story. Depending on your object’s surface, shape and size, the light can have different effects on it, so the best way to start is to just experiment with it all.

Natural light

Shadow

André Kertész, Fork, Paris, 1928           Melancholic Tulip, 1939             

Mondrian’s Glasses and Pipe, Paris, France, 1926

Backdrop

Artificial light

Reflection screen

and...

action!

Hand in 1 file (pdf, word or google doc) with a nice layout of your 4 best photos  in 

via Classroom.