Old shoes by

Mikel
Arrizabalaga

STILL LIFE - definition

The term still life comes from the Dutch stilleven.

Still life
is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter,
typically commonplace objects which may be either natural
(food, flowers, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking
glasses, books, vases, jewellery, coins, pipes, and so on).
With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Greek/Roman art,
still life paintings and photographs give the artist more control
in the arrangement of design elements within a composition
than do paintings/ photographs of other types of subjects such
as landscape or portraiture.

STILL LIFE - A history

People have been painting
collections of objects for
thousands of years.

Still life paintings,

particularly before 1700,
often contained religious
and allegorical symbolism
relating to the objects
depicted.

The Ancient Egyptians painted

stacks of offerings for the gods,
in temples or tombs. Egyptians
were not interested in
perspective, or in shading. They
didn't care about making things
look realistic. They just wanted to
clearly show what each of these
objects was
http://www.timetrips.co.uk/still_life_history
.htm

Greek and Roman Still life

Mosaics on the floor and painting on the walls especially at Pompeii (the Roman town covered by
ash in the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD79). There is much more effort in accurate shading and
colouring here than the Egyptians managed

These images are of Fresco paintings of still

life objects from Ancient Greece and Rome

Christ at Emmaus
by Caravaggio 1601

EARLY PHOTOGRAPY
Artists from the Renaissance onwards used a camera
obscura (Latin for dark chamber), or a small hole in the
wall of a darkened box that would pass light through the
hole and project an upside down image of whatever was
outside the box. However, it was not until the invention of
a light sensitive surface by Frenchman Joseph Nicphore
Nipce that the basic principle of photography was born.
Joseph Nicphore Nipce,
View from the Window at Gras, 1826

PAINTINGS
Pieter Claesz, Still Life (between 1625-30)

Still life photography has been popular among photographers

since the early 19th century, and still is today. Early
photographers adopted the still life genre from the painters at
the time. Around this time, painters such as Vincent Van Gogh,
Francisco Goya and Paul Czanne were painting their famous
still life paintings, which inspired the photographers of the day.
In the early years of photography, still life was a practical choice
as well as a creative one. In the 19th century, exposure times
were measured in minutes rather than seconds, so it would be
difficult to attempt to photograph landscapes or people;
anything that moves would be very difficult to photograph.

Vanitas Paintings
The name refers to a passage of the Bible in Revelations, which
says 'vanity of vanities - all is vanity'. The idea was that people
love their pleasures in life, the things that make them feel
important or wealthy, and yet it all means nothing (vanity)
because time soon passes and we die.
VANIATS paintings mostly portrayed a variety of expensive and
fancy objects, each a symbol to represent a persons life
including hobbies , occupation and interests they pursued.
Musical instruments and wine goblets standing for pleasure, but also reminders of time such as a candle or hourglass, or of
death, usually a skull. Usually they were painted as a memorial
to someone who had recently died.

Vanitas Paintings

Adriaen van Utrecht, Vanitas Still Life with a

Bouquet and a Skull (1643)

Harmen Steenwijck, Vanitas

(1640)

EARLY STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHS

Still life with ivory tankard and fruit, about 1860. Roger Fenton.
The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum.

Josef Sudek
(1896 1976)
Structural frame.

Joseph Sudek

From the mid-1920s until his death in

1976, Czech photographer Joseph
Sudek shot Gothic and Baroque
architecture, street scenes and still
lifes--usually leaving the frame free of
people and capturing a poetic and
highly individualistic glimpse of
Prague. The still lifes are the best
known aspect of his oeuvre; indeed,
his graceful depictions of drinkingglasses and eggs are familiar to those
who don't necessarily even know his
name. Acceding to his reclusive
nature, Sudek began The Window of
My Studio series in the 1940s.

Josef Sudek (1896 1976)

was a Czech photographer,

Bowl and Egg in

Window,
by Josef Sudek.

Artist: Josef Sudek,

Czech (1898 - 1976)
Still Life 1955
Photograph
Size: 12 x 9.5 inches

Robyn Stacey contemporary Still life

Robyn Stacey was born in Brisbane
in 1952 and all through her
schooldays did not regard herself as
being in any way artistic. It was not
until she completed a photography
course as part of an arts degree at
Queensland University that she
decided that photography in some
form would be her career.

Robyn Stacey

Robyn
Stacey
Bombe
(cape bulbs)
(2009) 118.0 x
148.8 cm Type
C print on
paper
The title of the work (Bombe) refers to the baroque styled vase, which rests on an example
of Australian red cedar furniture from around 1820. Stacey revives the tradition of still life,
a genre of painting that was at the height of its powers and popularity in seventeenth
century Holland. The presence of fruit, flowers and often insects communicated the brevity
of life and the inevitability of death in these vanitas paintings from the past Stacey
consciously reworks these traditions in her practice.

Duke of Northumberland's Tablecloth, from the exhibition

Robyn Stacey - House at the Museum of Sydney

Johann
Friedrich
Grueber Still life
Painting
1662-1682

Robyn Staceys draws on the collections of the NSW Historic Houses Trust. Stacey
translates these beautifully preserved objects into still life format to reveal their
aesthetic, social and historical value. These constructed photographs reference historical
painting and artifacts but use contemporary production techniques.

House is the result of a four-year collaboration between photographer

Robyn Stacey and Historic Houses Trust curators. The exhibition focuses on
collections from Elizabeth Bay House, Vaucluse House, Rouse Hill House &
Farm and the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection.

The Fall of the House of Rouse, from the exhibition Robyn

Stacey - House at the Museum of Sydney

Accomplishments, from the exhibition Robyn Stacey House at the Museum of Sydney

Saison, from the exhibition Robyn Stacey - House at the

Museum of Sydney

Rouse and the Cumberland Plain, from the exhibition Robyn

Stacey - House at the Museum of Sydney

Still Life Photography by Kevin Best.

Contemporary Still life Photographs

Still life by Frescendine

The Weight of the sin by Antonio Diaz

Antonio Diaz

Antonio Diaz

Antonio Diaz - Eggs, lemons and other things

Antonio Diaz - Candle Light

Antonio Diaz
Love ends

Antonio Diaz Little Things

Apple, nuts and vase

By Antonio Diaz

Lemons by Antonio Diaz

Still life redux by Leenda K

Bottles on sand by Wim Schuurmans

The fight by Jimmy Hoffman

POSTMODERN - photography
PHOTOGRAPHY
Post-Modern photographers are
considered to be "rephotographers" who
do not take their own pictures but take
them from other mediums. Most PostModern photographers take images and
place them to the side of text.