When I work on a still life photo I need an entrance. A way to get a feeling for the objects.

Still life photography and painting is all about empathy. You can’t make a good still life without understanding deeply what the objects mean to you and what they resonate.
The longer you have the objects in your possession the better. Some of the objects I use in my still life photography are the inhabitants of my studio for years.

Sometimes when I work with objects I’ve recently found I add some personal things into the still life. A bit of string I have since I was a boy or a memorabilia from my parents.

Some of the objects I find on my walks I conserve. I let them be for a year or so in my studio. They lay together with other objects, made of the same materials, together in a box. Until they have acclimatised and I have the feeling that they have become part of the family that inhabit my studio.

Still life photography to me is a to get to know with the objects. A research to their identity. What/who are they. The journey they have undergone. From a shiny new object in the shop up to the discarded object on the side of the road. Who bought them, who through them away. What made them so weathered and aged?

The objects change character as well depending on whom I pair them with to make the photo. Just like people change character when speaking in a different language.

The still life photos give us a glimps into the personality of the objects. Reflecting our own relationship with them.