Aren’t you saying that beauty is complex, deep, and difficult—way beyond the commodifying wash that’s utilised to sell to us? Some philosophers say that beauty, along with consciousness, truth, and value, are ontological primitives—I go along with that (although not in the sense that they are “things” or “parts”). The Romantics defined beauty so as to contrast it with the sublime, but I think that beauty enfolds the sublime. Beauty can be frightening, awe-inspiring, and overwhelming. Take a look at some of the greatest paintings of, for example, the Crucifixion—terrible beauty.
Thank you, Hugh. Yes — that is very close to what I mean. Beauty is not merely decorative, and certainly not reducible to the commodified version of it we are constantly sold. It feels deeper, stranger, and more demanding than that.
And I agree about the sublime. In experience, beauty can absolutely be frightening, overwhelming, even terrible. At its strongest, it does not simply please us — it confronts us.
Thanks for your reply, Tomasz. Have you come across the work of Iain McGilchrist? He writes and talks beautifully on beauty. He's helped me enormously to clarify what I am attempting when photographing the landscape where I live.
it has not only to do with beauty or feeling, it's the whole package. You can sit and wonder or being active and feel free to move. It's a complete world of his own. Personally I only need one square meter to photograph and be happy wherever I am and notice things no one sees. On the other hand the landscape or in my neighborhood waterscapes can be excited as well, certainly a combination with spectacular cloud formations. It also makes you aware of the fact that you are just a dot on this globe.
I've got so many photos just like that. A sky filled with the patterns of branches. I always wish I could add the birdsong and wind to them so they were complete.
Yes, here in the Mojave Desert, we embrace the landscape and the skyscape at various times of any day and temperature. The gravitas of the very moment I capture an image has to be felt and respected.
Aren’t you saying that beauty is complex, deep, and difficult—way beyond the commodifying wash that’s utilised to sell to us? Some philosophers say that beauty, along with consciousness, truth, and value, are ontological primitives—I go along with that (although not in the sense that they are “things” or “parts”). The Romantics defined beauty so as to contrast it with the sublime, but I think that beauty enfolds the sublime. Beauty can be frightening, awe-inspiring, and overwhelming. Take a look at some of the greatest paintings of, for example, the Crucifixion—terrible beauty.
Thank you, Hugh. Yes — that is very close to what I mean. Beauty is not merely decorative, and certainly not reducible to the commodified version of it we are constantly sold. It feels deeper, stranger, and more demanding than that.
And I agree about the sublime. In experience, beauty can absolutely be frightening, overwhelming, even terrible. At its strongest, it does not simply please us — it confronts us.
Thanks for your reply, Tomasz. Have you come across the work of Iain McGilchrist? He writes and talks beautifully on beauty. He's helped me enormously to clarify what I am attempting when photographing the landscape where I live.
I agree. I often see silence, stillness, a feeling of calm, a sense of scale.
I could speak an entire interview about that. Depends what is meant by "beauty". Me? The mountains are as much out there as there are in me.
Cérébral Photography such as abstract Art, may be lay nothing in the heart.
I think Beauty has much in common with emotions brought by different sources.
Photography without emotion
Nice work, Tomasz. majestic!
Makes me think about John Gossage's The Pond.
it has not only to do with beauty or feeling, it's the whole package. You can sit and wonder or being active and feel free to move. It's a complete world of his own. Personally I only need one square meter to photograph and be happy wherever I am and notice things no one sees. On the other hand the landscape or in my neighborhood waterscapes can be excited as well, certainly a combination with spectacular cloud formations. It also makes you aware of the fact that you are just a dot on this globe.
Have a nice easter Tomasz.
I've got so many photos just like that. A sky filled with the patterns of branches. I always wish I could add the birdsong and wind to them so they were complete.
I love to walk in the silence of the woods and photograph things as they are. A rusty fence. The fallen tree. The dead leaves from last season.
My own body has scars. And i know where they came from, and the land has history just like that. And i cant even begin to fathom.
Yes, here in the Mojave Desert, we embrace the landscape and the skyscape at various times of any day and temperature. The gravitas of the very moment I capture an image has to be felt and respected.
Great post.