The power and beauty of the still life — the arrangement of inanimate objects and the myriad stories and conceptual or symbolic meanings — has fascinated people for centuries. When photography began, still life immediately became a focus, as evidenced in William Henry Fox Talbot’s 1844 Pencil of Nature (the first commercially published photobook ever) featuring things arranged on shelves and tables. In this course, in addition to historical examples, we’ll look at how contemporary photographers like Lucas Blalock, Ishiuchi Miyako, Lorenzo Vitturi, Laia Abril, and Robert Cumming approach the still life and how they use this ancient genre to tell new stories. In weekly exercises, you’ll learn and experiment with different ways to work with and expand on different approaches to the still life. While our emphasis will be on the conceptual aspect, we’ll also look at more practical issues, like how to use a simple lighting setup at home that will help you get the best out of your approaches.