ART Pathos ∙ Τέχνης συγκίνησις®

Still Life in painting

A still life (plural still lifes) 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. 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 – Photography Masters

Kevin Best

the intense realism and luscious light of a Dutch painting

Kevin Best is reinterpreting the still life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, in a new medium: photography. 

Kevin Best manages to freeze time and take us back to that golden era, he has amassed an extensive collection of items which featured in the original paintings, from a giant glass Roemer’s and delicate “Kraak” porcelain to German Westerwald jugs, agate and silver knives, silver cups and 300 year old bronze candlesticks that have miraculously survived. And each work for each shot can take weeks or months to fully prepare. By the way, his meticulous technique was learned at The Australian Centre for Photography. It is simply amazing that he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the significance of each and every item used on the “canvas” of each shot in each work and how they interact with each other to form a narrative that had a deep significance in a time of great wealth and fear. A narrative really that resonates to this day.

Ever since the inception of photography itself, still life photography has been in vogue. And with the advancement of modern-day cameras, photographers can now have greater control over lighting, mood and composition of their photographs, thereby creating amazing still-life photography masterpieces.

Elena Tatulyan

Still-life photography as a form of art takes a great deal of learning and experience. It is necessary to master the art of carefully selecting objects, the lighting and dozens of other variants. 

In still life photography, a photographer creates an image with almost full control over lighting, mood, and composition. Because photographers directly influence the image creation process, still life photos reflect the creativity and style of the photographers themselves. For this reason, photographers who specialize in still life will end up with a unique and creative portfolio. Even if the endless possibilities of still life photography can seem daunting, it’s definitely worth trying out.

Anna Nemoy

Still life captures resembling closely to painting standards, Anna Nemoy surprises us with her stunning portfolio full of creative and artistic still life captures. The objects she chooses to appear before her lenses are certainly reprising and vibrant, stellar light makes the scene much more pleasant for the viewers to visualize the life within the content. Beautiful choice of objects such as fruits and flowers placed rhythmically to suit the valuable mood and artistic pattern, Anna had set a wonderful trend in creating these masterpieces with available light and objects within our living room.