14th August 2020: Still Life Shoot

I knew that I wanted to capture a message surrounding the futility of life and the prominence of death in my still life shoot. Death as a topic is always somewhat integrated into the editorials of Vogue Italia, regardless of what they are more obviously focalising on. For example, ‘’Water and Oil’’ by Steven Meisel commented on the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico in 2010. It depicted a dark black aesthetic, with models seemingly dead or dying, choking on toxic fluids in the ocean. The shoot ‘’Horror Movie’’ for Vogue Italia very much depicted the idea of death through models expressions and poses and included scenes of insinuated murder and violence. It is here that we see two completely unrelated topics relate very strongly to death which is what sparked my inspiration to use the topic for inspiration for a still life shoot.

(Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia, September 2010)

I initially began research by looking at ‘’Vanitas’’ paintings, which often communicate the notion of life and death, however arrived to the conclusion that such composition would bore me, and appear too predictable and dated. I instead tried to look outside of the more obvious route, and collected a variation of objects based on inspiration from photographers using the subject of death in their work: such as Sally Mann, Sam Taylor Wood and Steven Klein. Sally Mann and Sam Taylor Wood’s work was incredibly focused on death in the form of decay, whilst Steven Klein used more costume-like props as symbols of death in his works. For example, gas masks, knives, fire, and ghostly white masks.

The list of objects I collected from the above photographers imagery included:

-Two aged brass patina candlesticks

-A fake skeleton

-Various pieces of shop bought meat which I left out for one day in an attempt to initiate decay

-Fake eyeballs from previous shoot

-A large dyed yellow ostrich feather

-A selection of peacock feathers

-Black and gold baroque vintage kitchenware

-A fake gas mask

-Two black vintage vases including a decay-like decorative pattern

-A glass of red wine which I left out for several days in an attempt to dry the liquid and create an artistic effect on the glass

-Toilet roll

-Condoms

-White plain masks

-Clown ruffs

I began the day by simply playing around with the objects in the studio compositionally. I did not want to have something which looked too ‘arranged’ which is why I didn’t use inspiration from other still life shoots for composition. I aimed to have something look more artistic and organic than very commercial or predictable, as I want the work in my final show to be true to my style and be reflective of it. I also feel like a less arranged composition is more in lieu with a strong narrative by forcing the viewer to question and interpret the work in a more personal way, which is needed when communicating such a dark topic. Death in and of itself is an organic process, which also prompted my desire for a more ‘organic’ setup.

Knowing all of these being my desires and sitting in a studio with an abundance of objects in front of me was highly confusing. I became frustrated and worried about the work I was going to produce, as I couldn’t arrive to many conclusions. This prompted me into taking a cigarette break outside to the garden area I hadn’t visited before, which sparked inspiration for a composition. In front of me was some incredibly macabre looking, twiggy, soiled earth with dying leaves. I instantly was taken back to the research of Sally Mann’s ‘’What Remains’’. I thought about how eerily beautiful the rotting flesh of the humans looked in her work, and decided I would place the rotting meat outside too. As it can be viewed in my R+D development book, lots of experimentation helped me to arrive at the final images. Many of the images I took ended up reminding me of the creature in the film ‘’Eraserhead’’ by David Lynch, which has always been one of my favourites. It seems that what you love really does find ways into your work.

Sally Mann, Body Farm, 2005.

I was taking these images with my friends DSLR at first. I am not very experienced with cameras. At Conde Nast we have done a couple of workshops, however I have never really understood them. I know what makes a great image, just not how to MAKE a great image!

Mid way through the shoot I had the idea to use my laptop camera instead of the DSLR. I LOVED THIS. It captured the light in a more raw, blurry manner. The images reminded me of the stills from Harmony Korine films due to the rawness of them and I felt were effective as it reflects the current time in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Many shoots in the fashion industry have been carried out via zoom recently including the Kendall Jenner for Burberry Campaign, so I took a shot at it myself.

Next I played around with more more props to find some inspiration for another possible composition. I had a fake skull which I covered in toilet roll and red paint to create a more disturbing, 'fresh' effect to the skull. Because I used toilet paper to enhance the texture of the skull I thought placing it next to toilet roll on the shelf would be relevant to the work, interesting, unexpected, and clinical. The image ended up looking rather 'dirty' and again, raw, as I used a old wine glass next to both object too. I felt this really highlighted the notion of death in my work as it highlighted the animalistic nature of humans and their bodily functions. Below is an example of one of the pictures of this composition taken using my laptop once again.

After realising through my improvisational process that my work was heavily linked to the notion of bodily fluids I wanted to recreate this relevance for a final shot in the still life series. I used face serum which looked reminiscent of semen in order to create a shocking image. I covered the serum all over a greek sculpture of Aphrodite along with burnt condoms, which I loved but it was not effective when using a laptop camera. I took it with the DSLR, by this time the images were coming out a lot better because of the practice I had had throughout the day.

Overall I am happy with how the shoot went. The shoot ended up communicating a nuanced message regarding the futility of life and the prominence of death- one which surrounded human earthly delights and hedonism. The reference to sex through the Condom wrapper and hedonism through the wine stained glass communicated this. There was also a heavy implication to bodily functions and fluids, through the use of said condoms and toilet roll. The images comment on the animalistic nature of humans, the need for sex and love, the sad inevitability of these things ending, along with the ending of life itself.

As mentioned I do think that symbolically the work is strong. However the lighting isn’t quite right. I am a good image conceptualiser but not a good image taker. Times like these are when I regret not being more solid in my knowledge of photography and lighting. I think the images would’ve looked great on a film camera and I regret not knowing about such cameras, how to source them and how to use them. For the future I definitely want to focus on developing my skills in this area so I can have strong ideas alongside just as strong outcomes.

I am also worried that this shoot was not ‘fashion-y’ enough and that it will be marked down because of this. I was taking a very artistic approach to my work as I always do, and with still life it is particularly hard to integrate fashion into it if it is highly conceptual or abstract. I aim for my main shoot to have a lot more fashion styling in a more overt manner.

References:

-Mann, S. (2005). Images from ‘Body Farm’ on Sally Mann Website [Online]. Available at: https://www.sallymann.com/body-farm/ [Accessed 31 July 2020]

-Meisel, S. (2010). Water and Oil Image, Vogue Italia, September 2010. [Online]. Available at: https://www.anneofcarversville.com/style-photos/2016/12/22/ revisitingwater-oil-one-of-franca-sozzani-steven-meisels-most-provocativecollaborations [Accessed 3 June 2020]