Olivia Parker: Signs of Life

Olivia Parker’s work, Signs of Life (1975-1977) looks at the transformation of life and death, the intricate and aesthetically beautiful images, ranging from dark to light contrast each showing the detailed beauty in the ephemera she photographs. These ranging from fruit, shells, feathers, bone, and books. Items Parker relates to having signs of life “The objects I like, whether alive or dead, are signs of life. Memento mori on a tombstone says remember death, but it also reminds me that someone once lived” (Parker, 2018).

I relate to this statement, as it indicates a level of familiarity with my own work and the choices I make when shooting, which objects I choose and drawn to. There is a fascination with death whether we realise it or not, does this link to the fear of death and the unknown? Or is it a sentimental act where we need and want to hold on to memories and objects. There is an underlying connection with the objects I shoot, which are decaying leaves currently or something that is in a cycle of life, and where my idea of fragility comes in, recognising that all things are fragile, and life is fragile.

Parker discusses in her Introduction to Signs of Life, available on her website, her influences of Dutch, Flemish and Spanish 17th century still life, the uses of torn petals, fruit which is imperfect and damaged as well as insects all indicated to growth and decay. The darkness and soft lighting we may think of when discussing these still life paintings, is something I can see within my own work. The use of heavy vignettes in editing and light choices and the use of natural light. Natural light is something that Parker uses, and this gives a sense of softness and delicateness to the objects she is shooting. In a 2016 Widewalls article, Amy Lin describes Parker’s use of lighting in a similar way, saying that the lighting Parker uses does “portray the vulnerability of photographed objects” (Lin, 2016). This gives the objects and the environment a soft aesthetic within the photographs, again something I can see within my own work and creating that feeling of vulnerability to the objects I photograph. Lin also likens this work as conveying a “notion of domesticity”, referring to the choices of objects such as flowers, slippers, necklaces, and broken eggshells. A sense of looking at familiar objects in a new way, the beauty in the ordinary perhaps.

Susan Sontag says something similar in On Photography when discussing travellers with cameras capturing famous sites “Photographic seeing meant an aptitude for discovering beauty in what everybody sees but neglects as too ordinary” (Sontag, 2008:89)

‘Pods of Chance’ (1977) by Parker, is an exquisite image of peas in their pods. The richness of the blacks, greys and whites bring detail out of the peas that we would not normally see. They look old and fragile as if they were taken in the 19th century, but fresh and ready at the same time. In a balance and captured between life and death, ready to be consumed. Parker describes this piece and her attraction to the peas and them being "alike in structure but alive I their variation, fascinates me" (Parker, 2008).

This detail is something I hope I am conveying within my own work and with the idea of still life as a development, I will be experimenting to see what I can achieve by using natural light also within my images.

Fig 1: Olivia Parker, 1977, Pods of Life, from Signs of Life Series

Parker’s main inspiration for still life came from the work of Spanish painter, Juan Sanchez Cotan, whose use of dramatic lighting and high details of vegetables and fruit, make his paintings sharp and highly depictive of what his subject is.

Fig 2: Juan Sanchez Cotan, 1602, Quince, Cabbage. Melon and Cucumber

His use of light especially was inspirational to Parker and Sanchez Cotan’s work, she describes as being “important in understanding what still life is about” (Parker, 2008) An artist I have discussed previously, Ori Gersht has also been heavily influenced by Juan Sanchez Cotan, with his recreation of Cotan’s ‘Quince, cabbage, melon and Cucumber’ 1602, where Gersht’s version involved a video titled ‘Pomegranate’. In this video he shoots a high-speed bullet which explodes the fruit, the camera frames picking up the details we would nit see without eyes normally.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “Ori Gersht’s Pomegranate.” YouTube, 20 Aug. 2012,

On photographic still life, parker says it “it seems to me an open arena precisely because of those intrinsic qualities of the medium that distinguish it from painting” (Parker, 2008)

The relationship to painting is evident in Parker’s work, the aesthetics lend themselves to the soft lighting and techniques used by painters, along with the clarity the photograph gives the subjects depicted. Her technique at first was to use a variety of equipment such as 4 x 5 view cameras, Polaroid 20 x 24, 35mm and medium format cameras, black and white and colour film and creating her images using silver and Cibachrome prints. Her process of contact printing the negatives and split-toning images get achieve the rich dark tones and aesthetic gives her work in this series an aged looked, likened to old photographs and paintings.

These processing techniques and choice are things I can relate to within my practice, the use of heavy contrasts, high contrast colour, deep dark backgrounds to focus o the detail and hidden beauty of the objects I shoot. I have only explored black and white briefly within my work, and I am undecide if it could work, so I will be experimenting to see, but the details and beauty in the darkness, with glimpses of colour is becoming a personal style within my work, but also, it would be interesting to see if the aesthetic changes the meaning by removing the colour.

My intent is to still to show the hidden beauty in decaying items, but it is developing on to another meaning of fragility, which I have previously discussed. This beauty and fragility in objects life span also reflect the passing of time, capturing that moment before it is gone. Does my underlying meaning looking at my own fragile spine and its resemblance to leaf skeletons and their fragile state somehow symbolise the passing of time for me, getting older perhaps? Maybe.

“The living world seems to consist of fine balances and thin edges: small variations within fragile structures, delicate membranes, narrow temperature and pressure tolerances” (Parker, 2008)

References:

Websites:

Lin, Amy. “Olivia Parker | Widewalls.” Www.widewalls.ch, 15 Nov. 2016, www.widewalls.ch/artists/olivia-parker. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Parker, Olivia. “Essay: Introduction to Signs of Life.” Mysite, 2021, www.oliviaparker.com/copy-of-essay-books-2. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Books:

Sontag, Susan, and Penguin. On Photography. London, Penguin Books, 2008, p. 89.

Video:

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “Ori Gersht’s Pomegranate.” YouTube, 20 Aug. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci2AA_5Yg7E. Accessed 29 Jan. 2021.

Images:

Fig 1

---. “Pods of Chance, 1977,” Pinterest, 2021, www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/463730092880100525/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Fig 2

Sanchez Cotan, Juan. “Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber, 1602,” Britannica, 2021, www.britannica.com/art/Stuart-style. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021.

Bibliography:

Books:

Jeffrey, Ian. The Photography Book. 1997. London, Phaidon Press, 2000, p. 358.

Press, Phaidon. The Art Book. 1994. London, Phaidon, 2006, p. 410.

Websites:

---. “Signs of Life.” Mysite, 2021, www.oliviaparker.com/signs-of-life-re-do. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Figures:

Fig 1: Olivia Parker, 1977, Pods of Chance

Fig 2: Juan Sanchez Cotan, c1602, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber