Art of Arrangement

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  Dessert, c.1923, Frederick G.Tutton, The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum

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  Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit, c.1860, Roger Fenton, The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media
  Museum

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  Insect Wings, as seen in a Solar Microscope, c.1840, William Henry Fox Talbot, National Media Museum Collection

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  2,000,000 Pairs of Service Boots in the Making, 1939, Unknown, The Daily
  Herald Photograph Collection at the National Media
  Museum

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  Still Life, 1907, Clarence White, The Royal Photographic Society
  Collection at the National Media Museum

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  Contents of an Ostrich’s Stomach, c 1930, Frederick William Bond, The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National
  Media Museum

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  Horticultural Show, Carn, Brea, 1992, Jem Southam, National Media Museum Collection, courtesy of the artist

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  The Sands of Time, c.1855, Thomas Richard Williams, The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum

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  Still image from Falling Bird, 2007, Ori Gersht, courtesy of Mummery
  and Schnelle Gallery London, Nogah Gallery Tel Aviv,
  CRG Gallery New York, Angles Gallery Los Angeles

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  Still image from Pomegranate, 2006, Ori Gersht, courtesy of Mummery and Schnelle Gallery London, Nogah Gallery Tel Aviv,
  CRG Gallery New York, Angles Gallery Los Angeles

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  Mustela Erminea Stabilis A48, 1994, Clive Landen, National Media Museum Collection, courtesy of the artist

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  Caterpillar Eating a Tomato, 1998, Catherine Chalmers, National Media Museum Collection, courtesy of the artist

Introduction

Art of Arrangement: Photography and the Still Life Tradition
Gallery One & Two: 17 November 2012 - 10 February 2013

Still life has captured the imagination of photographers from the early 19th century to the present day. When the first photographers adopted the still life genre, they inherited a visual tradition established in centuries of painting. It is a tradition full of lavish, exotic and sometimes dark arrangements that are rich with symbolic depth and meaning.

This exhibition investigates the history of the still life photograph, through the National Media Museum’s Collection. It considers the formal and aesthetic conventions photographers have used, and how these have been adapted and subverted to extend creative expression in their work.

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