Theme: Still Life?

The fourth edition of PhotoBrussels Festival will take place from 15 November to 21 December 2019 on the theme “Still life?”.


After "Landscape" (2016), "Portrait" (2017) and “City” (2018), PhotoBrussels Festival 04 will focus on the theme “Still Life”.

The still life, which perennially fascinates us and continues to inspire contemporary creative photography: whether in the traditional vein, or revisited, whether minimalist, experimental, crude or humorous, this is a genre which seems to be inspiring the photographic medium more and more.

The term first appears in the Dutch stilleven in the 17th century, being then adopted into German as Stilleben, and English as still life, meaning ‘silent or motionless life’. It was not until the 18th century that the term nature morte came into use in French. This theme, which was originally essentially pictorial, has been appropriated over the years by cubism, hyper-realism, Pop Art and sculpture. For its part, photography has addressed the theme of the still life from its very beginnings, and has been constantly renewing it.