To help me with this little project I have researched into a few different still life photographers.
Jeff Wall - The Destroyed Room
This picture shows a woman’s bedroom that has been vandalised; this was created in a studio as you can see if you look at the door on the left there are beams holding up the dry wall. All of the clothes that can be seen are of Wall’s wife, who left him for another man this same year, so it may be thought that this was why he created this piece. Wall borrowed his wife’s clothes as they were still on good terms and he says, “I don’t remember feeling particularly angry at that time”[1].
Certainly looking at this image it doesn’t look like he wasn’t angry at the time but there is a deeper meaning to this piece and that comes from a 19th-century painting by Delacroix. This painting is called ‘The Death of Sardanapalus’ and it is of an Assyrian King who has had his armies defeated and refuses to go quietly and commands the destruction of his court and harem.
It is very interesting to see where a person gets their inspiration from, a lot of still life was created before cameras were invented and told quite intricate stories about the people at the time of painting.
Vanitas a form of art that shows the 'vanities' of life. This art form has deep meanings and the themes were most common in medieval funerary art. These became very morbid and explicit, increasing the obsession with death and decay through the 15th century. A lot of the content within the painting symbolises the shortness of life, for instance the skull, reminds us of the certainty of death. The lamp, beer tankard and violin also are considered to symbolise shortness of life, to me they show some of the joys that life contains. The beer tankard, suggests a social person or an alcoholic and the violin can also be seen as a social item as many people go to listen to people play and it is also something that can be enjoyed individually.
I could be completely wrong about this image but that is my opinion about this painting, that is what art is about, having your own interpretation and opinion and I think photography is the same when viewing work.
I have come across some imagery from this site http://www.klarag.com/ that made a connection with me.
They are all very full with items of fashion (clothing, accessories, shoes), it isn't really the items that connected with me but more the way that the images have been set out. There is a controlled mess going on, that says to me a hectic busy lifestyle which is how I feel my life is at the moment.
More to come later.......
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