In Conclusion

Well in conclusion, what can I say about the idea of Vanitas?

I personally believe that the idea of vanitas as a specific art form is more then likely a practice of the fine arts rather then photography. (..not to say that photography is not fine art...) As an area of photography in particular, I think that there are better ways of portraying matters of life and death or related issues then making a study of still life in the studio. That is in essence the advantages of being a photographer.

As a photographer, instead of spending hours in the studio creating a composition it is possible to get out into the world and create works that show the reality of the human condition as experienced every day. And the real world is surely the ultimate expression of life and death.

(Eddie Adams picture of the execution of a viet cong suspect )

Photographic images of real life will always more enlightening with regards to life and death then any painting or studio images could ever be... Robert Capa's famous image of the dying soldier in the spanish civil war, The work of Weegee in the 1930's, News reports of the vietam war, the falling man from 911. Even the mobile phone video of Sadam Hussain being hanged.

So what my conclusion is regarding Vanitas, is that as an art form I think it is of its time. In the 17th century oil on canvas was the digital camera of the day, so vanitas developed as a genre to express views and feelings of life and death as suited to that media. But as an idea the meaning of vanitas in art, what ever the medium is, will live on.

As photographers we have an excellent medium in which to express these ideas by showing the real world of life and death.

I would like to revisit this again, especially the environmental themes... but not in the 17th century style.

Final Shoot.

So after the disappointment of my second shoot, I needed another plan of action. I still wanted to look at environmental issues, but needed a different approach. In the end I decided to look at the human impact on our environment at a more personal and local level. I went out with a couple of carrier bags and collected litter and rubbish that was just lying about.

I found bottles, cans, crisp packets, a pile of rubble, and an old umbrella. I did draw the line at picking up used nappies of which I spotted three of.

The idea of the picture was to create a landscape made of refuse and rubbish while the image of the earth floated in the sky.

I set the scene up on the floor on a black sheet I had, using an old cardboard box to give some elevation. Again, I used my video lights, so I could see the lighting as I was setting up the shot.

(...A quick shot of how I set my scene up on the floor of my studio space...)

In addition to my pile of rubbish, I used some of the leaves, fallen fruit and dead flowers again.. And also a couple of weeds I pulled and some Ivy.

I also used some torn pages out of the atlas and burned the edges to represent damage to the planet, and once again used the cut out of earth in the background.

Lighting was a bit difficult, as there were many shadows from the objects in the scene and in the end I ended up having the key light above and in front, and to light the planet I used a little hand held torch so that I didn't create any light spill on to the background.

Once I was happy, it was just a question of a few minor compositional adjustments, and getting the right exposure which was 1 second at ISO400 f/16

I did use slight camera movements to help with the depth of the scene, a slight front tilt forward and a little twist to the left as you look at the image.

(...My final image after some slight level correction in post production...)

Overall I think I have achieved an interesting result, and have met my personal goal of highlighting ecological issues. I will always look upon this image as a compromise, due to the poor results of my second shoot. Once again, this may be something I will come back to at a later date, however I may develop this idea and consider trying something similar on location.

Second Shoot

So for my second shoot I wanted to take the principles of vanitas and try to apply them to present day issues. The issue I chose to look at was climate change and the environment.
For this shoot I wanted to highlight the melting ice caps and rising sea levels, so it is for this shoot that I wanted to use my frozen skulls.
I purchased an out of date world atlas for £1.50 from a charity shop and cut out a few of the maps and things to use in the shoot.
I wanted to show the ice skull melting and dripping into water with the maps showing under the water and a picture view of the earth in the black sky.
I suspended the skull using a bent wire hook and fishing wire. and used some double sided tape to stick the picture of planet earth to the black backdrop.
The difficulty I had was getting the Ice skulls to hang correctly, whilst at the same time to get it to stay still long enough to get a reasonable exposure as every time I tried to adjust anything it kept swinging.
Unfortunately I was unable to get the picture before the hole in the skull I was using to hang it melted through and it fell.. I tried various other shots but i was not very happy with the results.
Next I used the second smaller skull that I made but I had the same problems again so in the end I abandoned the idea of the frozen skulls.

(....This is the best shot from my first frozen skull. I had to really burn in the background in order to make this work. It was just after this that it fell and broke.)

(....This is the best of the images using my second frozen skull, but still not good enough...)

I did try some compositions using the ordinary skulls as well, including some experiments in using 3 skulls and the planet which were interesting, but not what I was looking for...

(...Here is one of the images using the 3 skulls that I did...)

I did get some interesting results using a cd sleeve on which I drew a crude skull with a black marker. I then held that in front of my light source to cast a skull like shadow over my cut out earth and then had a dead flower in front of it as well..

(...I did like the idea of this image, but I didn't feel that it was just quite good enough,

especially the skull shadow could have been better...)

After 4 hours I gave up and decided to start again..

In conclusion for this shoot I do think the actual idea of the ice skulls was good. In practice, it was handling the ice that proved difficult. Some of the other Ideas I came up with were also worth exploring at a later date..

I do think that one day I will come back to this but having learned some valuable lessons...

Modern Vanitas

Vanitas - Scott Fraser 2003

Vanitas in the modern era is not as popularly understood as it was 300 years ago. I think this is probably due to our modern day understanding of mortality. Living in the 17th century you hand an average life expectancy of around 40 years, and more then a 50% chance of dying in childhood compared to today.

In fine art vanitas still remains a very much practised art form in it's traditional sense. Although some of the symbolism has changed to reflect the modern era.

What has been interesting is trying to see if vanitas in meaning or in spirit has crossed over into other areas of popular modern culture or media.

In other areas of art and media references can be found that give the same message as both vanitas and momento morte going back to the same time as the original painters were working, especially in literature.

Shakespeare makes references in many of his plays that point towards fragility of life and existence.

There are two famous passages in Hamlet:-

First of all there is Hamlet's Soliloquy.. ''To be or not to be, that is the question''

In which Hamlet considers his whole existence and contemplates suicide.

And then later on there is the famous scene in which Hamlet finds the grave of his father's old court jester of whom he has such fond memories and delivers another famous quote:-

''Alas poor Yoric, I knew him well....''

(American actor Eric Booth playing Hamlet c1870)

There are other writers that have looked at the same themes in their works and touched upon the delicate balance of life and death.. Charles Dickens perhaps in 'A Christmas Carol' and other works, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula and several of the works of Edgar Alan Poe all touch on life, death and mortality to varying degrees.

Later on still, HG Wells uses his early science fiction works to look at the frailty and vulnerability of human life, and humanity as a whole which is then later reinterpreted for the radio, specifically the Mercury Radio Theatre Company production of ''War of the Worlds'' panics the American public into believing there is an actual Martian invasion in progress by performing in the style of a news broadcast.

By this time though I feel the influence of modern living should be looked at again. Infant mortality in the early 2oth century is considerably less then 200 years before, and life expectancy was 20 years more. I believe this has changed how life and death influenced artists and their works. While life is still precious, it is a lot less fragile then it was. And while death was still inevitable, it was lot farther away then it used to be.

This I feel influenced the art and culture of this time into looking at the quality of life rather then the fragility of it. Orson Wells went on to make 'Citizen Kane', a film loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. The film depicts the life story of a Charles Forster Kane, who from his death bed whispers his final word of 'Rosebud' (perhaps symbolic?).

This film specifically sets out to tell it's audience that the accumulation of wealth and power does not equal happiness. Kane dies alone and unhappy, dropping a snow globe (again, is this symbolic, could it be representative of a skull?) and whispering the name of his favourite toy form his childhood..

Another area in which the themes and influences of vanitas have been used in modern times is in modernist anti-war propaganda.

drypoint etching, by Otto Dix titled Stormtroopers advancing under gas attack.

Particularly in this area, the work of John Heartfield and other Dadaist who through AIG magazine attacked Hitler and the NAZI regime by using vanitas themes and symbolism to fortell the coming war.

Hitler the superman by John Heartfield 1932

These types of images and methods have been used successfully later on by other artist for similar purposes, particularly in areas regarding Nuclear proliferation and the cold war.

Defend to Death by Peter Kennard - 1982

Protect and Survive by Peter Kennard - 1981

Even in the commercial world every now and again, the themes of vanitas crop up.. Oliviero Toscani famously developed his campaign under the banner of 'The United Colours of Beneton'.

His initial campaign which played on the use of the word 'colour' using it in its racial context started reasonably low key, but in order to create more impact he switched to using stronger and stronger image, eventually using vanitas symbolism and looking at life and death.

This image of a man dying of aids was used at the request of the family. The pose and serenity of the dying figure uses imagery from vanitas and momento morte.

These images of criminals awaiting execution on death row eventually resulted in Beneton sacking Toscani as they were two shocking for the American public to handle.

In modern popular culture I suppose the modern genre of Horror films is the most likely place to see references to both classical and contemporary theme

s of vanitas. Many of these films are based on the works of Poe, Shelly, and Stoker who originally wrote their stories 150 years before. Every now and then, however, a film does get made in another genre that shows such strong imagery that it would have to be considered as a vanitas piece.

Film Poster of the 1961 film ''The Pit and The Pendulum''

adapted from a story by Edgar Alan Poe

The Steven Spielberg WWII War film, ''Saving Private Ryan'' I think is such a piece because it shows such strong images and in such a way as to mimic the reality of it's time that it must be considered as influenced by vanitas or momento morte.

Scene from ''Saving Private Ryan''

In the end, I think that any art form either commercial or not that gets its audience to consider one's own mortality should be considered either as vanitas or at least influenced by it. I think that was what the original 17th century artists would want.

First Shoot

Having spoken to Mark in order to get some idea of the different contrasting pieces we have to produce, I decided to attempt my first shoot.

I had been into Queens Gardens with a couple of carrier bags and collected up some fallen leaves and some of the windfall crab apples from off the ground.

At home I set up my studio room, with my MPP large format on a tripod, using my adapter plate and canon 5D mk2.

The two main difficulties in using this set up are as follows.

1. While the full frame sensor is the same size as a HD10 the trouble is the crop factor. I have a standard 180mm lens with my mpp, which while that would be an excellent choice for shooting with 5x4 film, the crop factor of using 35mm frame is extreme to say the least. This means that in order to get a reasonable framing of the subject, I had to be as far back in my space as possible... which leads into the second problem...

2. Because I had to position myself so far back in order to frame my subject, I had to focus the camera close to it's infinity setting. (i.e. the lens and the camera sensor were very close together..) This then had an effect on how I was able to apply camera movements due to the fact that the closed up bellows restricted their flexibility.

Snap of how I set up my first vanitas shoot

Having taken this into account, I decided to initially try framing using the sliding camera plate. (using more then one 35mm exposure to create the frame). However I found that this restricted what I could do compositionally...

Next, I used a .25 wide angle adapter on the front of my lens to give a wider field of view. This did work, and i was able to arrange my set in order to create an attractive composition. and shot some exposures working on both positioning the light and the objects.

It was at this point that I felt my composition was lacking in something.. I was using candles, and i had one of my skulls. I felt that the piece needed another more narrative element to suggest some kind of motive for what i was doing...

I looked around the house, and found the prop gun I used from when I was in Calamity Jane at the New Theatre. I placed it into the composition, and immediately i felt it had given the piece a sense of tragic irony. I now looked at the piece and it seemed to say something about violent, perhaps that this was worthless death that was a waste.

The problem with this method was the wide angle adapter I was using was giving quite considerable colour aberrations so the quality of the images were sub standard. I then decided to move the camera to as far back as possible.. and also re-compose the subjects into a tighter group to make the frame.

So after some final slight adjustments to the lights, composition and exposure i settled on my final image composition.

(.....an image shot using the wide angle adapter)

Movements.

I used movements in the camera, at first of all I wanted to use a front tilt backwards in order to put the candles out of focus, but in the end decided to have a slight tilt forward towards the back of the scene in order to help with focusing the foreground.

I took several exposures and eventually settled on one that was taken at 1/6 sec at f/16 with an ISO of 3200.

Canon 5d mk2 set up on rear of MPP 5x4 camera.

Post Production was limited to adjusting levels and I cropped the image at the bottom to eliminate some dead space in the picture.

I think it has turned out relatively satisfactory, and in the end I feel I have produced a high quality image that fulfils the brief and shows a degree of creativity.

While I feel this image does represent a traditional vanitas piece, I think it also has another dimension. The gun not only balances up the composition, it makes the viewer ask questions as to both the meaning of the piece and the identity of the skull.

Ideas developing...

The ideas for my two Vanitas pictures are developing now.. I have successfully created a couple of frozen Ice Skulls which both look great...

Also I saw a friend out last night in a brilliant t-shirt that had a skull over a british flag.. I had an idea about trying to tackle the futility of war in one of my pieces.

Momento mori

Linked to but not the same as Vanitas is Momento Mori...

'Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die." It names a genre of artisticcreations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality. The phrase has a tradition in art that dates back to antiquity.'

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori 05/10/2010)

OK, if I look into Vanitas, then I cannot avoid the term Moment Mori.. The idea of Momento Mori is very similar to that of Vanitas, but I feel it is more literal in it's meaning.

The idea of Vanitas is as in it's translation, in that life is fleeting, and should not be taken frivolously.. Life is transient and is only a brief speck of dust in the midst of time. Momento Mori on the other hand is telling us that life no matter how long, has to end at some time, and should not be wasted.

Perhaps the diference in Vanitas and Momento Mori is one of perspective, in that Vanitas is more about looking at life from the outside, or even looking back on life and placing life into the wider scheme of things .

Momento Mori then can be seen from the point of view of being on the inside looking

out or looking forward to inevitable death perhaps..

Logically if this premise is correct then it can be concluded that Vanitas is about life in general whereas Momento Mori is about one's own (the Artists own) life.... Perhaps not?

Historically, Momento Mori goes back to pre biblical times, with examples of it being found in the art and literature of ancient Greece or Rome. The specific area of vanitas is really one of

the C16..

(Prince of Orange René de Châlons died in 1544, at age 25. His widow commissioned sculptor Ligier Richier to represent him offering his heart to God, set against the painted splendour of his former worldly estate. Church of Saint-Étienne, Bar-le-Duc)

Vanitas, What is it? and who did it?

Well, for our first college brief this semester, we have been asked to look at Vanitas and do research into it's meanings and history. Culminating in creating two images in the Vanitas style.

OK.. Vanitas....

'vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity.'
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas - 01/10/2010)

There are several traditional symbolic elements used Skulls are used to represent certain death, Bubbles show the fragility of life.. Rotting fruit represents Decay, whilst clocks show the passing of time.

Let's have a look at a couple of examples...

Cornelis De Heem - Vanitas Still Life with Musical Instruments c.1661





















http://www.wga.hu/html/h/heem/cornelis/v…


'The artist belonged to the second generation of the famous dynasty of still-life painters. He spent his youth in Leiden and as demonstrated by this work, he established close connection with the Leiden school of painting.

This splendid painting invokes the memory of the golden age of Dutch still-life painting. The sumptuousness of the instruments is especially fascinating. Most prominent among them is the six-stringed, inlaid viola da gamba leaning against the chair, with a lion's head for decoration and an "S" shaped sound hole (more characteristic of violin). Next to it on the ground are two types of lutes, a trumpet, a flute and a mandolin; in a chair on the left, a violin, a bagpipe and a small pocket violin.

On the table, richly laid with fruits and golden objects, are the traditional symbols of Vanitas. To illustrate the transitoriness of pleasures gained from wealth, plentitude and eating and drinking, there is an up-ended wine jug from which its content have spilled onto the ground, symbolizing that earthly pleasure is short-lived and man will return to dust. In this context the instruments are symbols of physical love. Next to them the painter depicted a snail on the ground. It was generally believed that this animal was born of mud, thus it became the symbol of sin. In contrast, the ivy crawling up the wall in the background promises immortality. The peach, melon and fig, since they are cut open and their seeds are revealed, symbolize reviviscence and resurrection. This image make the message of the painting less somber, although its warning intent is unmistakably recognizable."

The musical instruments also represent the pleasure of music and it's transience, a metaphor for the impermanence of life's pleasures. '
(http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/h/heem/cornelis/vanitas.html - 01/10/2010)



Another example is Harmen Steenwyck

Harmen Steenwyck (1612 - 1656)

Vanitas Still Life Painting

Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life
(oil on oak panel, 1640)
The National Gallery, London

'Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life' by Harmen Steenwyck is a classic example of a Dutch 'Vanitas' painting. It is essentially a religious works in the guise of a still life. 'Vanitas' paintings caution the viewer to be careful about placing too much importance in the wealth and pleasures of this life, as they could become an obstacle on the path to salvation. The title 'Vanitas' comes from a quotation from the Book of Ecclesiastes 1:2, 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.'

The Symbolism of the Objects

The objects in this painting have been chosen carefully to communicate the 'Vanitas' message which is summarized in the Gospel of Matthew 6:18-21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Each object in the picture has a different symbolic meaning that contributes to the overall message:

The Skull

The skull, which is the focal point of the work, is the universal symbol of death. The chronometer (the timepiece that resembles a pocket watch) and the gold oil lamp, which has just been extinguished, mark the length and passing of life.

The Shell

The shell (Turbinidae), which is a highly polished specimen usually found in south east Asia, is a symbol of wealth, as only a rich collector would own such a rare object from a distant land. Shells are also used in art as symbols of birth and fertility.

Books and Musical Instruments

The books represent the range of human knowledge, while the musical instruments suggest the pleasures of the senses. Both are seen as luxuries and indulgences of this life.

The Silk and the Sword

The purple silk cloth is an example of physical luxury. Silk is the finest of all materials, while purple was the most expensive colour dye.

As a symbol, the Japanese Samurai sword works on two levels. It represents both military power and superior craftsmanship. These razor edged swords, which were handcrafted to perfection by skilled artisans, were both beautiful and deadly weapons.

The Stoneware Jar

The stoneware jar at the right hand edge of the picture probably contained water or oil; both are symbolic elements that sustain life. Over the centuries, however, the oil paint that the artist used has become transparent and it is starting to reveal the bust of a Roman emperor painted beneath the water jar (mouse over the image to view). This shows a change to the composition that the artist has made during the painting of the still life. At some stage of the work he decided to swap the more complex form of a sculpted bust for the simpler form of a stoneware jar. This was probably because the Roman emperor was too dramatic an image to be placed at the edge of the arrangement, as it detracted from the importance of the skull as the painting's focal point.

The Composition of the Objects

The composition of the work also amplifies the still life's symbolic meaning. In our illustration you can see how Harmen Steenwyck has used the diagonals of the painting to construct its arrangement. The objects which represent the 'Vanities of Human Life' fill the lower half of the work which is split by a diagonal. The absence of form in the upper half represents our spiritual existence. This is an empty space into which we can project our beliefs and ideas as to what this means. In this space a beam of light, which descends on the opposite diagonal, establishes the dramatic tone of the work and symbolically suggests the link between this life and the next. This beam also has two practical functions within the composition: it illuminates the skull and acts as a counterbalance to the triangular arrangement of objects in the lower section.

The Painting Technique

Steenwyck employs a very impressive painting technique to give the still life a vivid sense of realism. Using small brushes, he paints the image on an oak panel which is primed and sanded to form a glass smooth ground. By building up the picture with thin glazes of oil paint he manages to realistically convey the wide range of textures that the individual objects possess: the iridescence of the shell, the translucence of bone, the softness of leather, the smoothness of silk, the reflections of metal, the coldness of stoneware, the roughness of rope and a variety of wood surfaces that range from a gloss varnish to a dull matt.

The assorted forms and textures of the objects are unified by the limited palette of tertiary colours that Steenwyck selects. These subdued colours are chosen because the overall arrangement of objects is too complex and their textures are too refined to support a bolder colour composition. To counteract this subtlety he adds a sense of drama by highlighting each object with exaggerated tone.

The Development of Dutch Still Life

Harmen Steenwyck - Still Life with Fruit and Dead Fowl
(oil on canvas, 1630)
Private Collection

In seventeenth century Holland, still life grew in popularity as a subject due to the Reformation. In the previous centuries artists had found patronage in the creation of religious imagery for the Catholic Church, but as this support declined, they had to adapt to survive in the new Protestant climate. Still lifes using symbolic images that reflected Protestant attitudes found favour and patronage from the Dutch merchant classes. The character of different towns is even reflected in their choice of symbolic objects. The university town of Leiden, where Harmen Steenwyck studied art under his uncle David Bailly, preferred skulls and books, whereas the Hague, a market centre, favoured fish with its traditional Christian associations, while many others used flowers, another Dutch product.

The Vanitas Influence

David Bailly (1584-1657)
Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols (oil on wood panel, 1651)
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

David Bailly was Harmen Steenwyck's uncle and teacher. You can see his influence through the choice of subject matter in his painting below. This is a self portrait of Bailly with a full range of 'Vanitas' objects. The painting depicts Bailly as a young man holding a contemporary self portrait - he was in his sixties when he painted the work. This gesture fuses together portraiture and still life into the one 'Vanitas' concept.

The Vanitas Flaw

Harmen Steenwyck - Vanitas
(oil on wood panel, 1640)
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

Vanitas paintings were popular in countries with strict Protestant and Catholic Christian principles such as Holland and Spain. They were purchased by the rich who possessed a conscience about the wealth they had accumulated. However the genre had an inbuilt weakness in the irony that the paintings were also valuable and collectible commodities and, as such, became 'Vanitas' objects themselves.

Harmen Steenwyck Notes

Harmen Steenwyck - Still Life (oil on canvas)
Private Collection

• Harmen Steenwyck was a Dutch 'Vanitas' painter.

• 'Vanitas' paintings were warnings that you should not be concerned about the wealth and possessions you accumulate in this world as you can't take them with you when you die.

• Vanitas still lifes depicted objects that had a symbolic meaning: a skull as a symbol of death, a shell as a symbol of birth or books to represent knowledge.

• Harmen Steenwyck was from the university town of Leiden where artists often used skulls and books as 'Vanitas' objects. You can recognise works from other towns by their specific selection of symbolic objects.

• Harmen Steenwyck paints his images with incredible realism and astonishing skill. This realism is meant to enhance the truth of the 'Vanitas' message.

• Ironically the 'Vanitas' style had an obvious inbuilt weakness: the paintings were expensive collectable commodities and as such became Vanitas objects themselves.

(http://johnmactaggart.com/art_appreciation/still_life/steenwyck/harmen_steenwyck.htm - 01/10/2010)

Ok.. that's enough for part one... More later.