Still life photography

Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. An example is food photography.

Apache still life. c.1907 by Edward S. Curtis.
A modern-day still life photo with red tomatoes

This genre gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition compared to other photographic genres, such as landscape or portrait photography. Lighting and framing are important aspects of still life photography composition.

Popular still life images include groups of flowers, food, and desk space, but still life photography is not limited to those 3 categories. Typically, still life’s are not close up to the subject nor far away, but at a very medium angle. The art in still life photography is often in the choice of objects that are being arranged and the lighting rather than the skill of the photographer.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, mounted the exhibition “In Focus: Still Life” in 2010. The exhibition included works by renowned still life photographers such as Paul Outerbridge, Paul Strand, André Kertész, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Josef Sudek, Jan Groover, Sharon Core, and Martin Parr.


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