Still Lives

Skillfully arranged on a wooden table, fruits, plants, porcelain dishes, objects of the passing time (candles, clocks) are harmonized in shades of red, green or blue. A hand – the photographer’s? – sometimes comes to play the spoilsport. The vanitý of the subject finally gives way to the harmony that emerges, testifying to the beautý of a certain simplicity.́ The still lifes are inspired by the Spanish Baroque painting of Francisco de Zurbarán and Juan Sanchez Cotan. This pictorial current both historical and noble, for which we might think it has been fully explored, remains in my opinion still very much alive and current. Proof of this is the work of contemporary photographers such as Zeke Berman, Joan Fontcuberta, Florence Henri, Jan Groover, Abelard Morrel.