A bowl of fruit, a glass of wine, and a flower arrangement: they're all subjects of still lifes by famous Dutch painters including Vincent van Gogh, Rachel Ruysch and Pieter Claesz. Dutch artists are still creating still lifes and a group of Dutch photographers have approached this classic theme from a modern angle for Amsterdam's Foam museum.

Hagar Jobse went to the Amsterdam museum for RNW:

Vacuum cleaners and high heels that move to the beat of Dutch rap; the video clip that artist duo Lernert & Sander made for the Dutch rap group Jeugd van Tegenwoordig shows the still life in its most modern form.

But the other works in the Still/Life-Contemporary Dutch Photography exhibition are also very modern. All 24 photographers in the show are well known internationally and are considered influential and innovative.

Dynamic
Curator Colette Olof: “In today's photography, there's just more and more experimentation. Photographers now have the courage to step away from their own medium and explore video and installations. This exhibition shows just how dynamic photography is."

“Despite that, the essential nature of a still life has not changed throughout the centuries. It's still a composition of material, of dead objects," says Olof, adding, “Some of the artists have used the same objects that were used back in the 17th century, such as fruit and flowers. The exhibition begins fairly classically but then moves to more modern and raw images."

The exhibition is running until 26 October 2011 in Amsterdam's photography museum, Foam.