W/NW Vanitas and Memento Mori

[lynnb]

Share your photographic interpretations on Vanitas and Memento Mori...

From the Tate art terms definitions:

Vanitas - A still life artwork which includes various symbolic objects designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the worthlessness of worldly goods and pleasures.

Memento Mori - Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers.

 

[lynnb]

memento mori 2013 by lynnb's snaps, on Flickr
Nikon 1 V1 collage

 

[RichC]

Pretty much everything I’ve ever photographed! Just a few...


Tempus Fugit No. 2

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Digital Archaeology

Apple iPhone 4S. Touchscreen smartphone, circa 2011

Apple iPod. Portable digital music player, circa 2003

Amazon Kindle Keyboard. Ebook reader, circa 2012

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Insecta
There are about 100 photos in this project, so just a sample here.

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Life, Death, Time (After Philippe de Champaigne)

Here’s the original painting from about 1670. My rose should be a tulip but I couldn’t get one. Memento mori and vanitas paintings were full of symbolism, and the tulip had several meanings. For example, a flower is a thing of beauty but lasts just a short time - a reminder of life’s brevity, and a warning about concern with earthly matters like one’s looks when we should be paying more attention to higher things (religion was meant by most painters of that time, though some were against the Church and subverted meanings); and tulips in the 17th century cost stupid amounts of money, sometimes thousands - a warning against folly, greed and money grubbing.

 

[Mark A. Fisher]

RichC, what remarkable work. I especially am drawn to the mouse on the leaf(?) and the skulls with spikes through them. Lighting, composition, all done so very well, and the additional historical background material explaining the origins of Memento Mori and Vanities art is most welcome. Excellent presentation.

I almost forgot to mention the references to the frailties and eventual demise of modern technologies (iPhones, etc) you present. Great stuff!

Mark

 

[seany65]

Hmmm,. I think Vanitas and Memento Mori are a bit too 'Goth' for me.