A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on). With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Graeco-Roman art, still-life painting emerged as a distinct genre and professional specialization in Western painting by the late 16th century, and has remained significant since then. Still life gives the artist more freedom in the arrangement of elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects such as landscape or portraiture. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. Some modern still life breaks the two-dimensional barrier and employs three-dimensional mixed media, and uses found objects, photography, computer graphics, as well as video and sound.

Still Life by Edward Weston

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, engraver, printmaker, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His high-quality woodcuts (nowadays often called Meisterstiche or "master prints") established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since. Dürer kept elaborately detailed watercolor sketches of objects and natural subjects that interested him.

 Trompe-l'œil, which is French for trick of the eye, is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. The oil painting above is by William Harnett.

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist, who first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916 when she made grand scale oil paintings of enlarged flower blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens, and New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade.

Beginning in 1929, when she began working part of the year in Northern New Mexico—which she made her permanent home in 1949—O’Keeffe depicted subjects specific to that area. O'Keeffe has been recognized as the Mother of American Modernism. 

René Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. His work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality, and bridges the gap between a style of art known as Dada and modern Conceptual Art.

Ivan Albright was a Chicago born magical realist painter and artist, most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies, and still lifes. Albright often spent much effort creating ellaborate still life set ups, which he would intentionally leave alone to "allow the objects to rot", before even picking up his paintbrush.

A study for one of Ivan Albrights paintings next to the finished painting.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

How you decide to light your Still Life will play an important role in the images final meaning

Choose your objects carefully so that their interaction has a purpose, and together they create a greater meaning as in this still life with chocolate covered objects. What is the artist trying to convey by displaying these two objects side by side in the same manner?

In the still life below the artist has placed several objects that belong together, with an object that seems out of place. This creates a tension that develops an emotion or mood.

Vincent Van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist painter of Dutch origin whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died at age 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. Today he is celebrated as one of the most important painters of all time and his paintings continue to break auction prices often topping hundreds of millions of dollars a piece.

Dead Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh 

Andres Serrano is an American photographer and artist who has become notorious through his photos of corpses and his use of bodily fluids in his work, notably his controversial work "Piss Christ", a red-tinged photograph of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of what was purported to be the artist's own urine. The photo created a political controversy during the 1980's as politicians decried his images as blasphemous.

Francois Robert is a modern conceptual artist who creates collages out of bones.  He describes his 'Stop the Violence' series thus: "For each photograph I disassemble the modular system of the skeleton and reconfigure the elements to form a new image. These images are man made. Images of aggression, images that cause suffering, devastation and conflict. I intend the images to plant the notion of restraint and charity in an effort to promote peace and tolerance."

 

In this still life by Ansel Adams the Macro world of nature is opened up to us as an etherial landscape.

Using Macro Photography in your own work

Try incorporating some of the concepts that Macro Photos involve, by creating an original composition of your own. Here are some of my former students' artworks from the Jaffe Studio:

'Phillips Heads' by Jawahir Abdulle

'Icy window' by Jesselyn Tobar

USING STILL LIFE IN THE STUDIO

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

The use of Macro Photography is modern and universal. Through the exploration of Macro as a style of representation, create a finished work responding to what are the qualities of the objects being represented. Study the history of Still Life from Durer to Van Gogh to Conceptual motifs. Consider the layout and composition of your objects and how their placement changes the meaning of the artwork.

• Examine objects with different shapes and symbolic meaning.

How does the shape and or texture, or other qualities of the objects refer to your concept?  

    
• Discover through hands on exploration how to represent your idea.

What object might you select to represent different
aspects of your concept?

• Understand how the Still Life can be an essential aspect of artistic
communication and can transcend language/culture.

What does your Still Life say about you? What were you
trying to say? How successful were you in
communicating this idea?