1346
Still life of the Washerwoman, 1853. Krone’s image
does not depict a woman at all and instead uses the
visual signs of her trade: washing tubs, buckets, pitch-
ers and cloths positioned in a studio setting. Krone was
celebrated for his daguerreotype still lifes of scientifi c
instruments and equipment, amongst other subjects,
and his stated ambition was ‘to make photography use-
ful to all areas of science.’ Henri-Victor Régnault also
created a number of still lifes with a scientifi c outlook.
His Laboratory Equipment, Collège de France, Paris, c.
1852, shows a tabletop arrangement of test-tubes, mea-
suring equipment and other devices, literally refl ecting
photography’s bonds with science.
Similarly, Scottish photographer and writer John
Thomson included images of fl owers and fruit to an
ethnographic end in his Illustrations of China and its
people (1873–74). Thompson’s images draw on the
tradition established by European painters who recre-
ated the bounty of the worlds outside England and
America in luscious settings. Unlike some still lifes
which visually describe such cornucopia as a feast for
the senses, Thompson illustrated his subjects in even
greater detail by including their botanical classifi cation
and descriptions of their texture and taste; intensifying
the viewer’s experience. He preferred the wet collodion
process, a then cumbersome method, and produced
large-format negatives and stereographs that are noted
for their clarity of detail and richness of tone, securing
their ‘scientifi c’ status.
The market for still life photography during the
nineteenth century was both commercial and domestic.
It was a time of art patronage by the fashion-conscious
bourgeois when relations between photography and
painting were as close as they would ever be and both
photographers and painters aimed to service the same
picture collectors. Nineteenth century still lifes are
now seen in a category of photography that includes
genre scenes, allegories and composite images as each
attempted to speak the language of ‘high art.’ One of
the fi rst museums to collect photography, the South
Kensington Museum (later the Victoria and Albert
Museum) included still lifes by Prout and Lake Price
in their fi rst purchase of art photographs for the collec-
tion in 1857.
Nineteenth century still life photography can be
understood through terms of reference drawn from
painting, where everyday objects assume a particular
monumentality through their meticulous description and
often dramatic lighting. The imaging of objects is part of
a tradition of probing the external world through its close
depiction. Lavish displays of affl uence and abundance
can also be found at the heart of the still life tradition. It
is perhaps photography’s ability to radically transform
everyday objects, through its peculiar temporal qualities,
however, which anticipates the experimental work of
the best known still life photographers of the twentieth
century, namely Irving Penn and Paul Outerbridge.
The tradition of still life scrutinizes everyday existence
around the table where simple objects symbolise the
decay and mortality associated with life. Still lifes
exalt the banality of the subjects they depict through
technical virtuosity and they offer a sharp reminder of
the materiality of our existence.
Kate Rhodes
See also: Talbot, William Henry Fox; The Pencil of
Nature; Courbet, Gustave; Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-
Mandé; Braun, Adolphe; Niépce, Joseph Nicéphore;
Bayard, Hippolyte; Le Secq, Henri; Diamond, Hugh
Welch; Price, William Lake; Prout, Victor Albert; and
Régnault, Henri-Victor.Further Reading
Bajac, Quentin. The Invention of Photography: The First Fifty
Years, London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.
Gernsheim, Helmut, and Alison, The History of Photography
1685–1914, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1969.
Fizot, Michel, The New History of Photography, Koln: Kone-
mann, 1998.
International Center of Photography, Encyclopedia of Photogra-
phy, New York: Pound Press, 1984.
Lucie-Smith, Edward, The Invented Eye: Masters pieces of Pho-
tography, 1839–1914, New York: Paddington Press, 1975.
Rosenblum, Naomi, A World History of Photography (rev. ed.),
New York: Abbeville Press, 1989.STILLMAN, WILLIAM JAMES
(1828–1901)
American photographer, painter, journalist
William James Stillman was born in Schenectady, New
York in 1828. Despite his strong passion for an artistic
career, his family sent young William to the Union Col-
lege of his birthplace from where he graduated in 1848.
His ambition, however, to become a notable painter,
dominated his early life. He took lessons and made the
acquaintance of well-known artists including William
Page and Edward Ruggles. He travelled to England and
France where he met J. M. W. Turner, John Ruskin and
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Stillman’s career as a landscape
painter did not last long despite his recognised work for
which he earned the title of the ‘American Pre-Raphael-
ite.’ Soon the necessity for a more profi table occupation
led him to the practice of journalism. The absence of
an American periodical devoted to art prompted him to
establish an art journal entitled The Crayon: A Journal
Devoted to the Graphic Arts, and the Literature Related
to Them in 1855. The journal was very successful but the
long working hours that the editorial work required soon
exhausted him and led to his resignation in 1861.