"Still life photographs show arrangements of inanimate objects-such as food, flowers, shells, bottles, glasses, books, jewelry-captured in the studio or sometimes in the field.

This use of symbolic and religious objects as part of still life compositions continued through the Renaissance, after which the art form became a more secular playing ground for artists who could control entire compositions. This was just not possible when creating art from larger, or more animate, subject matter. In fact, most still lifes photography are close-up; once a photo has a person in it, it can probably no longer be considered a still life-both on grounds of animation and of scale."