Book Release: All is Vanity
At the peak of its relevance, Still Life was a genre replete with philosophical, political, and theological messaging. Still Life artists of the Dutch Golden Age used their paintings to critique the power-hungry elite of their time, or to draw attention to the moral hollowness of mindless consumerism. Even seemingly quaint pictures of floral arrangements and fruit baskets from this era concealed a sobering message: life, like the fruit and the flowers, will soon be gone. Everything that we value in life—wisdom, wealth, status, pleasure—all of this is ephemeral.
Nowadays, Still Life art has mostly been emptied of any symbolic depth. The mass market prints of food and flowers we find adorning the walls of chain restaurants are meant to look pretty—nothing more. For several years now, my artistic project has been to create Still Life with relevance to this particular historical moment while, at the same time, taking seriously the genre’s philosophical underpinnings. A central pillar of my work has been a meditation on death and decay and transience; however, I have also used Still Life to weigh in on a number of contemporary issues, ranging from the recent mania surrounding NFTs to the palpable rise of fascism around the globe.
My new book, All is Vanity, represents the culmination of this artistic project. The structure of the book is very much like this newsletter: it contains of mix of my original Still Life imagery alongside essays which place the art in historical context and unpack the symbolism. The book contains approximately 250 high quality images (some new and some old), along with 20 different essays (totalling about 27k words). Physical copies of my book are now available for purchase at Amazon.
The unfortunate economic reality of printing a 412 page full colour art book on 8.5x11 paper is that the price point will be inaccessible to some folks who might otherwise be interested. So I’ve made an inexpensive e-book version of the text available for purchase at my website. Unlike the e-books sold via Amazon, this file is yours once you’ve purchased it; you can read the PDF or ePub versions on any device you want and no corporation can revoke your access to the thing you paid for at some future date. (The images look great on my laptop screen; be aware some e-readers might compress the pictures or only show the images in black-and-white.)
Advanced Praise for All is Vanity
“In his brilliant photographs, Neal Auch has captured the eternal lesson of vanity vs time. Deeply inspired by Flemish still life paintings of the 17th century, his provocative compositions seem rooted in another time, yet utterly contemporary. As culinary designer for television’s Hannibal, I also drew inspiration from the uneaten prey, over-ripe fruits, and overblown bouquets of Flemish art, examining the liminal space between sumptuous excess and decay that Auch brings into exquisitely measured focus in his new collection. Each image whispers a warning that is cruel but, ultimately, extraordinarily beautiful.” — Janice Poon, graphic designer, painter, sculptor, food stylist, and author of Feeding Hannibal: A Connoisseur’s Cookbook
“All is Vanity combines text and art in an extended meditation on the conundrum of existence. Using the still life as a mirror to show the absurdity of self, culture, politics, and wealth, we're confronted with classically-styled images of unlikely objects (such as viscera, fast food, and sex toys) that are simultaneously lush, ironic, revolting, and gorgeous. Auch’s photographs burst with gruesome beauty like the abundant rot of a bloated corpse.” —Joe Koch, author of The Wingspan of Severed Hands and Invaginies
Vanitas with Bones, Crucifix, and Roses, by Neal Auch