Untitled #22

This photograph comes from Laura Letinsky’s second major body of work, a series of still lifes titled Hardly More Than Ever (formerly, Morning and Melancholia, 1997–2001). In these works, Letinsky transforms domestic detritus into images that imbue the still life—one of the classic genres of Western art—with fresh formal possibilities and contemporary emotional resonance. Her title puns on Sigmund Freud’s classic essay “Mourning and Melancholia.” In these pictures, Letinsky arranges evocative fragments left over from meals into precise compositions, expressing the tensions latent within the domestic feast: its dark edges as well as its sensual and convivial pleasures. Her images capitalize on the genre’s history as well as its current glossy prevalence in lifestyle blogs and magazines.