Vanitas Photography

For this workshop we had to decide as a group which Vanitas painting we wanted to look at for influence. Our painting is called "Vanitas still life" by an unknown artist thought to be Georges De La Tour (a French artist) or somebody from his circle.


We had our first photography session in the studio on thursday afternoon however instead of going straight to shoot our group spent this time planning and organising what props could be used in this photograph and who in our group had what. I think this helped us on Friday morning when we had nearly all of the props available to us straight away and we were able to set up and get started almost instantly (we got set up but then had to wait for the store to open to be able to take out lights and the camera).

As a group we had many different ideas so we combined our efforts and took a group photograph that could be presented at the crit and we were all happy with it, plus we each took a selection of photographs that used our own idea that we had thought of.

I changed my personal photograph to include more of the chess pieces as this was my idea to put them on the board as our board was quite flat in comparison with the painting and I thought this might help add more detail and make it stand out more. I also added in the other half of the orange slice to hide the tag from the library coding on the book as I thought this was very distracting and removed the element of painting-ness rom the photograph.

We used a black curtain that hangs in the studio as a backdrop because we were sharing the studio space with another group who were on the other side of the curtain. Once they left we could have removed the curtain however we found that we thought the detail in the curtain was not distracting us and added more small detail to the backdrop and this was liked so we kept it in. Plus our photograph was not as close up as the painting; in the painting there is very little background above the guitar so details are not needed, in our photograph there is more room for background furthermore because of our light set up (soft box from overhead) it appears as though there is a spotlight highlighting the skull specifically. We also started with a black cloth covering the table but this appeared as though the objects were floating and we also realised in the painting that there was detail from the table (after we had set up all our scene quite perfectly) so we removed the scene and the cloth and set up again.

This is the photograph that we made as a group:

Objects and their meanings

These are the objects used in the photograph and the possible hidden meanings each one represents.

 Skull

Mortality, inner contemplation and eternity

Mirror

Temporary nature of beauty, vanity should be avoided

Guitar

Indulgence in luxury, music would inspire artists, expensive

Flowers

Life is temporary, reminder of death
In Netherlands tulips are collectable, a symbol of the folly

Sword

Military power, superior craftsmanship, beautiful but deadly, vulnerability, phallic symbol, power, protection, authority

Books

Human knowledge

Oranges

rotten fruit symbolises aging, peaches/figs/plums have erotic undertones

Money and Purse

Beauty, narcissism, arrogance, signal their owners absence (purse, jewellery box)

Chess Board / Cards / Dice and Shaker

Signal life, anonymity as gamblers are all equal




Outcomes

The photograph above was taken while some of the other members of the group had gone on a props scout (for flowers and fruit) before this image was taken the chess board had no pieces on it and there was nothing to attract the eye or make it stand out, I experimented with placing different pieces onto the board (probably not in their right places as I do not understand or play chess) I also moved the purse around as when we replaced the skull with another the purse blocked off part of his face.

This is the photograph I styled and took for myself, I moved the spare orange slice to hide the label on the library book (so I did not have to worry about the retouching later on) and I placed more chess pieces around the photograph to add in extra detail and tie in the chess board more with the rest of the objects.