Saturday, 21 September 2013

Still life - initial thoughs




The above photos by artist Mat Collishaw are designed to emulate Dutch Vanitas of 16th and 17th century. Vanitas is a type of art that is associated with still life painting, and often has symbolic or religious associations.  In this series, Collishaw emulates this style in photography, and depicts the last meals of various Texan Prisoners. 



Excellent examples of Vanitas are the above and below paintings by Peter Claesz 1597 – 1660 and Philippe de Champaigne in 1671 respectively, and you can see elements of this style in Collishaws’ photographs.
 






In my still life photography, I want to try and achieve a more painterly effect than that achieved by Collishaw, as I feel the light is quite cold and hard.

When re-visiting light painting in the Experimental Photography unit, I came across a photographer named Paolo Roversi. He has used light to ‘paint’ on his subjects, creating images that are reminiscent of watercolour paintings. Although watercolour is not the method used by the Dutch painters, it is a painting style that may make my photograph appear less like a photo and more like a painting. Often in light painting, the light is pointing away from the subject giving hard futuristic looking images; but by pointing the light at the subject, you can achieve this soft blended appearance:






Below is an example of what I would call ‘hard’ light painting by Californian Photographer

Eric Staller, taken in 1970:







Although an interesting technique, it is not suitable for replicating traditional still life paintings.
 

To go to the next studio lighting post, please click here


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