Every meal is a potential still life (December 20 2012) Every meal is a potential still life (December 20 2012)

Laura L Letinsky the 50 year old Canadian contemporary photographer best known for her still lifes, has been interviewed by Allison Meier for Blouin Artinfo article in which she states “…every meal is a potential still life, but only so far as anything and everything is fodder for the camera. In terms of my interest in photographing after the meal, I was interested in the photograph as an event always in the past, only as the past. These ideas have been beautifully articulated by Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida. Photographing this scene after meals were eaten was a way to think about remains, stains, and what resists, including what resists photography. …I’m continuing with my photographic work, building on what I’ve begun with the “Ill Form Void Full” work. I’m hoping to do some travelling, particularly in Istanbul as I’m interested in its place as a juncture between pictorial conventions of Islamic decorative practice and Western European narrative depictions. I don’t want to be simplistic in my observations, and so want to do more research about this as it relates to gender, architecture, domesticity, and psychology. …I try not to have anything so valuable that it hurts if it’s lost. It’s not possible, and I do have objects that although not of marketable value, have great sentimental value. I’m not methodical in my collecting, rather it’s things I adore. I’ve amassed sets of dishes that are different whites and ivory, but similar because of a gold line around the rim which has extended into other not-quite-matching-but-related porcelain and glassware.”

 

Inspired by Allison Meier ow.ly/g28xC image source Uchicago ow.ly/g28vC