still life with glasses

If the knock-out major photography exhibition at the Getty, currently, is the one of documentary photography, I totally recommend, as well, its small and well-chosen neighbor, on Still Life. This has everything from early Fox Talbot, through some very geometric Kertesz, to the striking work of Sharon Core, who attempts to reconstruct paintings that the American Raphaelle Peale did between 1812-1824: if she couldn't find the actual fruit and vegetables that she needed, she set out to grow them herself from heirloom seeds. That gives a whole new gloss on the practice of slow photography. On the other end of the speed scale is the work of Ori Gersht - stills taken from very, very slow-motion videos of freeze-dried flowers and fruits being exploded. I'm amazed that I didn't know his work before. Here's a pomegranate being shattered by a bullet. Surely there's a place for him in Flash! when I get to discussing strobes and high-speed photography? It would, of course, be tempting to send a bullet through our china cabinet and see what a slowed down video made of that ... but I think I'll manage to resist.