Vanitas Still Life

Vanitas Paintings

As our brief for this project we have been put into groups and asked to chose a vanitas painting we'd like to recreate our selves using modern day objects. This painting is practically the exact same to the painting we have been given in a book. in order to re-create this painting using modern day objects i know it is important to understand the meaning and symbolism behind each object in the patenting in order to then find modern day objects to represent the same things. 

Here on the website:

http://levinrodriguez.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/symbolic-meaning-of-objects-used-in.html

I found a list of the symbolic meaning behind the objects used in most Vanias paintings. 

Still life documentary

Travel tickets shoot

As a result of my first shoot using receipts i decided i needed to try and find a concept which would work better. The idea of receipts seemed far too vast. I chose to have a walk about the streets and find discarded bus and train tickets. I really liked this idea as i felt as a series it had more of a direct story behind it. A ticket represents a journey made in a persons life. Unlike my previous shoot i chose to capture the tickets opened up so the viewer could see all the details on the ticket, such as where and when the person had traveled. Even on the train ticket it states that particular person was buying an adults ticket. With this small amount of information we begin to assume things about the person who's traveled or start to imagine who it could maybe have been.

An improvement i feel i want to make upon this shoot is shooting the tickets on a more interesting background, either patterned or textured. Because of how black the background looks one member of my class actually pointed out how the images looked like scans of the tickets. This is something i actually really agree with, therefore the images are not really showing my true skill as a photographer. A good idea i gained from group discussions would be to photograph the tickets upon bus seats as this would add more context to the images and create more of an interesting skilful looking image. 

As a larger series of images i feel they would work incredibly well as only with these four tickets here the vast difference can be seen. Travel tickets come in all colours and shapes but are used for the  exact same purpose, by very different people. 

Still life documentary

Shoot 1, Documentary still life

Receipts

In response to our still life brief and the work of Stephen Gill which i was most inspired by, I chose to begin by shooting receipts. Idealing i would liked to have come up with a more interesting and specific idea more along the lines of Stephen Gills portrayal of betting and failure, however this was just a start. Through shooting these at home using natural light from a window to the right hand side of the objects i was able to experiment, learn and come up with more ideas. 

In order to create these images i simply used natural light as i have already mentioned. I then placed old receipts which i found in wallets and purses onto a black piece of card. I removed the receipts from purses and wallets of different people and presented them exactly how i found them; some crumpled, some perfectly flat. 

After this shoot i began to question whether it would be more successful to capture the receipts opened up so the viewer could see details such as where the person had been and what they had bought and for what price. Although the folds and shapes worked really well with the natural lighting casting shadows, the idea of having the receipts opened up created more of a story for the series and would be something which would draw the viewer in more. 

I was undecided as to whether i should present the images in black and white or colour. I found colour worked so much better on only certain images. The idea of using black and white however created more of a link and consistency between the images as a series. 

Still life Documentary

Cigarettes, Irving Penn



When thinking of an idea of what i could possible photograph for my still life documentary project i was mostly inspired by the betting slip idea I've previously researched by Stephen Gill. This led me to think of the other different objects people chuck away on the streets. I've thought about bus tickets and train tickets, but feel like don't have much of a personal story behind them like that of the betting slips. One idea i came up with was cigarets. When choosing to research into this idea i found Irving Penn, a photographer extremely well known for his amazing still life work, had actually captured images of cigarettes himself. 


"In the case of Cigarettes however, Penn literally found his subjects on the street. By bringing them into his studio and carefully creating these minimalist compositions, he transformed one of the most widely consumed and discarded products of consumer society from that of pure detritus into a symbolic representation of contemporary culture. This transformative act resulted in one of the most elegant yet direct expressions of post-modern artistic practice."


http://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/27-irving-penn/series/cigarettes/


The images are in black and white and often seem to be lit quite simply with what looks to be a light either to the left or right hand side of the objects, casting a shadow to either side. The cigarettes are placed on a plain white background. The use of a white background and shadows cast using what i assume is a studio light are something which i feel work incredibly well with the use of black and white photography. The contrasting shadows and highlights and heavy focus on the shapes and form of the cigarettes make the viewer view them in a way we probably have never looked at a cigarette before, the detail is incredible. 

Still life documentary

Nigel Shafran


A photographer which i found while researching still life documentary photographers in my own time was Nigel Shafran. This photographer has explored working in series to document many still life objects or scenes. The work of Nigel Shafran is something which i have enjoyed looking at and is something which is inspiring me for ideas for this brief. Unlike the work of the photographer i previously researched Nigel Shafran captures more imagery of scenes or stingings rather than singular objects. 

Here he captures a series of images book shelves. much like the work of Stephen Gill, the photographer choses a theme then captures images of the variations of that same object. 

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/book_pages/001book.html

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/book_pages/002book.html

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/book_pages/003book.html

Nigel Shafran has also captured series of images of stair cases and suburban garages.


Stairs;

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/stairs_pages/001stairs.html

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/stairs_pages/002stairs.html


Suburban Garages;

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/suburban_garages_pages/001suburban_garages.html

http://www.nigelshafran.com/pages/suburban_garages_pages/002suburban_garages.html


This concept if capturing images of something which by classification is the same object, but has many variations of it is something i want to capture in my own still life photography. Again, through this concept you look at the different variations of the object and start to wonder and assume whom it may belong to. They work almost as self portraits without having to even include the person within them.

Still life Documentary

During our first seminar on documentary photography we were shown several different photographers who document still life objects. This genre of photography is something which i had never really considered or really been introduced to. The style is something which i find incredibly interesting. For the small brief we have been asked to produce up to 3 still life images, as a series. We have been asked to use natural light when photographing the objects which i am so pleased about as it makes the project more flexible as to where we chose to photograph. 

Stephen Gill

A series of images produced by Stephen Gill which has inspired me hugely is a project called "A series of disappointment". In this series Stephen Gill captures images of used betting slips which have been chucked away by people whom have lost their bets. The objects them selves are incredibly interesting to see as a series as Gill choses to photograph them exactly as they've been discarded of. The pieces of paper are folded and scrunched in many different ways. 

http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio#id=album-21&num=content-501

http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio#id=album-21&num=content-498

The images are created by the objects being placed on a plain, simple, grey background. They are all lit in the same way with a light to the right hand side, creating a shadow on the left. Its hard to tell whether the objects have been photographed in a natural light or using a studio light, however the use of the same lighting and background for all of the betting slips works very well. The diversity of the shapes and folds of the betting slips are tied together with this same lighting and same coloured background, representing the fact the objects are all the exact same thing, but made different by whoever had previously been in possession of it. The betting slips almost work as self portrait, as we as the viewer look at the way in which they've been folded and assume a lot about the persons personality.

http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio#id=album-21&num=content-484 

I personally think this idea is so well thought out and I would like to be able to create something like this myself. Its just difficult trying to think of a different object which would still represent so much about a person like these betting slips do. 

http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio#id=album-21&num=content-480