[Still Life with Game Birds] 1857 - 1861

Charles Nègre made this photograph, Still Life with Game Birds, using a waxed paper negative sometime in the mid-19th century. In France at this time, photography was still a relatively new medium, and its relationship to painting was a subject of much debate. Nègre trained as a painter, and he brings a painterly sensibility to this image. But this isn't just any still life - it depicts dead game birds hanging against a patterned backdrop, echoing the tradition of hunting trophies displayed in aristocratic homes. Photography, unlike painting, had the potential to democratize image-making. By taking this photograph, Nègre seems to be asking: who gets to participate in the culture of hunting and the consumption of game? To understand Nègre’s artistic choices, we might look into the history of French hunting practices and the rise of photography as a tool for social documentation. What does it mean to take something traditionally associated with wealth and privilege, and reproduce it through a new, more accessible medium?