Assignment 1 - Applications of Photography: The History of Still Life Photography

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 Cézanne 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.

Below is "A Hunting Scene," an early still life photograph by Adolphe Braun, 1867.

This "Still Life with Fruit and Decanter," taken by Roger Fenton circa 1860 is another example of classic still life photography. Paul Martineau, curator of Getty Museum's Still Life exhibition, said about this photograph "Diagonal axes created by the pineapple and drape, and by the gourd and berry basket, help to add dynamism and depth to this lavish composition." Roger Fenton was a pioneer of photography and was the first official war photographer. He was certainly one of the best photographers of his time, although his career only lasted around 10 years. Below are some more of his still life works.

"Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit" circa 1860.

"Still Life with Fruit"circa 1860.

"Still Life of Fruit with Mirror and Figurines" circa 1860.

As said above, Fenton introduced a sense of movement to still life photography and this was taken to more of an extreme in the 20th century. The parameters of the term "still life" changed in the 20th century, too, creating a broader spectrum of photographs which could be defined as still life.

Below is "Stopping Time" by scientist and photographer Harold Edgerton. This is an example of still life in a broader, redefined sense. The image captures a bullet piercing fruit at high speed, showing the "fragility of life" and a sense of "nature morte," the French term for still life which is more precise, and in which this photograph can be argued to be a "classic" still life.

Much of the research for this post I found here.