Famous Still Life Photographers

It is said that still life photography captures images of objects in action without animating them. This kind of photography is more like a painting in which position of the objects being photographed and light effects hold great importance. The photographer has the freedom of arranging subjects/objects to enhance the final or resulting effect. The art of still life photography allows the photographer liberty of experimenting with the angle of arrangement of the subjects which cannot be performed in landscape or other forms of photography. Profiles of some of the renowned still life photographers can be found in this article.

List of Famous Still Life Photographers

One should get an idea about the contributions made by these artists to the field of photography.

Irving Penn
This American photographer was known for the clarity and detail of the still life images he captured. Irwing Penn was born on 16th June, 1917. He graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art in 1938. Irwing Penn also worked as a fashion photographer. He was well-known for using white and gray backdrops in photography. In fact, he was the first one to popularize the use of gray and white backgrounds. Irwing Penn made the best use of lines and basic shapes to capture still life photographs appealing. Food and variety of other objects were used by Irwing Penn for still life photography. The J. Paul Getty Museum located at two places in Los Angeles, California exhibited most of Irwing Penn's works. Initially, Penn wanted to become a painter; however, his work experience in designing covers for the 'Vogue' magazine raised his interest in photography.

Adolph de Meyer
He was born on 1st September, 1868 in Paris. Adolph de Meyer completed his education in Dresden, Germany. Still life and portraits were the main areas of photography of Adolph Meyer. However, he also worked as a fashion photographer for Vogue, the famous American magazine (starting from 1913). The use of refractive elements by Meyer gave his still life photographs a dreamy kinda appearance. Adolph Meyer's works were published in 'Camera Work' a quarterly magazine owned by Alfred Stieglitz's. It was in the period between 1903 and 1907 when these photographs got published in this magazine. Later he moved to New York and started working for the 'Vogue'. Meyer also worked for the magazine, 'Vanity Fair'. He started working for the 'Harper's Bazaar' from 1922. Adolph Meyer joined the team of Harper's Bazaar in Paris as a chief photographer. He spent 16 years working for this magazine.

Edward Weston
Born on 24th March, 1886, Edward Weston was one of the famous photographers well-known for still life photography. He is considered as one of the most influential photographers of America. Edward Weston always knew what he wanted to become. He was the first photographer to have received the Guggenheim Fellowship. The photography career of Edward Weston spanned for a period of 40 years. His photographs have a great variety. Apart from still life photography, he was also into portrait, landscape and nude photography. Edward's Weston added a Californian 'flavor' to his photography that was reflected in his creations. He made use of many different types of cameras and photography techniques in his lifetime. The orthochromatic sheet film used by Weston before 1921 was replaced by the panchromatic film. The papers used for printing also were of different types. Silver gelatin paper was a standard one used by Edward in the initial days. Later on, he also learned to make use of palladium and platinum papers. These paper had to be imported from England. The shortage of supply and also a relatively higher price of these papers made Weston to abandon their use for printing.

The famous still life photographers and their works described in this article should make us aware of their contributions. Each of these photographers had a different/unique approach towards this art. Their works reflect this difference in approach.