The Art of Arrangement - The Holburne Museum

Still Life with Shellfish - 1650 - 1699 

Art of Arrangement: Photography and the Still Life Tradition

The tradition of still life is extensive, from painting to photography. This exhibition at The Holburne Museum in Bath aims to explore this transition from then until now. 
The show opens with one of the permanent collections still life painted pieces, Still Life with Shellfish. 
If we look at this image and study it we can begin to pick out areas of information that help to identify still life though photography. 
Still life will more often then not include fruit, this being a sign of wealth and power, however the pocket watch on the table show us that time is always at work and that all will die and rot away much like the wealth and power that is gained over time. It is a reminder to us all that life in any case, it not eternal. 

The Show
In this exhibition we are taken thought the ages of still life and are shown changes and the similarities that occur, The show includes many original prints by William Henry Fox Talbot, Harold Edgerton and Rodger Fenton.     

The images selected for this review best show the tradition, changes and similarities of the idea of still life. 

William Henry Fox Talbot, uses the tradition of fruit taken and inspired by the use of painting.  

William Henry Fox Talbot - Still Life

Rodger Fenton's Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit again looks that the tradition of fruit and silver wear gathered elaborately on a table. This image once more speaks out about decay and the passing time that we all experience.

Roger Fenton - Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit

Ian Beesley - Disused Block

The final image that I have included is Ian Beesley's images of the broken clocks, this image was taken in a Mill in Bradford, the image is showing the death of Textile industry, again the use of clocks showing the changes over time and how even industry comes to an end much like natural and organic objects do. 

This show was well put together, the transition between the past style of creating a still life image, composed of fruit clustered on a table to the idea of a more contemporary way of looking at how an image can be seen as a still life. 
A well worth show to have visited.