Creative Approaches to Still Life

Ready to expand your still-life practice and rediscover a sense of play in the studio? This new online workshop invites you to explore new ways of seeing and creating through experimental still-life techniques. Working alongside photographer Kimberly Witham, you move beyond traditional approaches and discover what’s possible when curiosity leads the process.

Over four sessions, you explore creative strategies for making still-life photographs that feel inventive, expressive, and personally resonant. The course begins with an overview of contemporary still-life photography, along with practical guidance for setting up a functional studio space, whether you’re working in a dedicated studio or a small corner at home.

From there, you experiment with lighting, printed and unconventional backdrops, in-camera collage, and other hands-on methods that encourage risk-taking and an “anything goes” mindset. Kimberly works primarily with daylight, using tools such as fill, flags, and diffusion, while also demonstrating how similar effects can be achieved with strobe. You explore backdrops beyond traditional seamless paper, including printed imagery, fabric, wrapping paper, and other materials that add texture and context to the scene.

A key focus of the workshop is working in camera rather than relying on post-production. You build layered still-life arrangements using flat, printed elements such as cut paper, altered imagery, or found materials, and use lighting and camera angle to create the illusion of dimensional space. No Photoshop collage is taught; instead, the emphasis is on constructing and photographing the scene in real time.

Through a combination of lectures, demonstrations, weekly assignments, and image reviews, you focus on how lighting, lens choice, camera angle, and spatial relationships can transform ordinary objects into compelling visual narratives. By the end of the workshop, you leave with a deeper understanding of experimental still-life practices, an expanded visual vocabulary, and a renewed sense of possibility in your studio work.