Distilled Life

RAY HIGGINBOTTOM ARPS

With a lifelong love of art and design, I have always been attracted to still life imagery and over the last few years I’ve been developing my personal approach to the genre. Ever since the inception of photography itself, still life photography has been in vogue. Still life as an art form takes a great deal of learning and experience and I’ve needed to master the skill of carefully selecting objects, mood, lighting and composition. Because I can directly influence the image creation process, my images have begun to reflect my creativity and style and have opened up the endless possibilities of this genre.

A still life, also known by its French title, nature morte, usually consists of an arrangement of inanimate objects, such as fruit, flowers and household items. Derived from the Dutch word stilleven, it came to prominence in the 16th century. I visited a small exhibition of Dutch floral paintings in London a few years ago, and I was greatly inspired by their vanitas paintings or memento mori, a genre that comments on the fleeting nature of life. For a long time I have collected images from magazines, ‘found’ objects and bookmarked photographers who have caught my eye. These have formed a great treasure trove of ideas which I dive into in search of inspiration.

Some of the photographers who have been influential in my development in still life are Simon Brown, whom I first came across at an exhibition that he had at the Romanian Cultural Institute. His images capture an idiosyncratic collection of objects that perfectly reflect his personal take on still life. John Blakemore has also had a profound impact on my work. I have seen a few of his exhibitions, listened to him talk about his works and have several of his books in my collection at home. Writing in John’s book Photographs 19552010, Jane Fletcher comments that each photograph was an interpretation, a challenge involving choice of lens, lighting, viewpoint processing and