civilized ku # 2201 ~ moldy lemon / strangeness / the cruel radiance of what is
Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 11:13AM ;)
Moldy lemon • click to embiggenIn the book on being a photographer ~ DAVID HURN in conversation with BILL JAY, David Hurn states:
For many people the word beauty is associated with the predictable - pictures previously seen and already in their memory banks, cliché images of sunsets, small fury animals, pin-up, postcard views, and so on. For me, most great photographs displaying beauty reveal a sensation of strangeness, not predictability, a kind of shock non-recognition inside the familiar. They are the opposite of clichés: they have a quality beyond the visually obvious. But even if it is difficult to define, beauty still lurks behind the scenes.
In some things, I am a creature of habit and familiarity - I like the familiar comfort of a favored couch and the emotional warmth of my house/home. There is some music and musical artists I can listen to over and over again. I have favorite foods and beverages of which I never tire. And, of the zillions of fine restaurants in NYC, there is one in particular that I return to again and again. And, of course, there's the wife.
On the other hand, I have learned to appreciate the idea and experience of strangeness. That is to say, strangeness as defined in the dictionary -
...unusual, extraordinary, or curious; odd; queer ... estranged, alienated, etc., as a result of being out of one's natural environment ... outside of one's previous experience; hitherto unknown; unfamiliar...
In some quarters and in some things, I am considered to be strange. If I have heard it once, I have heard a zillion times from one of the wife's very good friends, "Mark, you're strange." The remark is at times instigated by something I have said or done, but, on occasion, it is incited by the viewing of one or more of my pictures.
More often than not, the uttering of that comment is a result of her reaction to my pictures of things she would never have thought to picture or to be interested in seeing pictured. Upon hearing that comment, I take it as high praise indeed, in part because I sense that she is befuddled by, but nevertheless curious about, her own interest and reaction to those pictures and referents.
Now, that said, I don't think that she spends any after-the-fact time pondering her interest in / reaction to my pictures, or, for that matter, even the pictures themselves. But then again, to my knowledge, art and/or the making thereof are not in the forefront of her daily concerns. My stating so is in no way a criticism, it is just an assumption based upon my observation of her personal priorities and preferences.
However, all of the preceding said, what I find truly strange is why so many who profess to be art-inclined/involved are so put off by or uninterested in the strange - those who cling to and embrace, in both their picture making and picture viewing preferences, the familiar, the predictable, and the cliché. Pictures that are not a challenge / threat to their way of seeing and/or thinking, especially so to their notion of beauty.
Some of those so inclined have stated that I seem to go out of my way to deliberately picture things that are odd or strange just to be "different". Nothing could be further from the truth...
... I picture what I picture simply because I see beauty in that which I picture, even though when viewing my pictures I am struck by the thought of how strange it is to find/see beauty in what I picture. Even to me, my pictures strike me as strange inasmuch as I don't fully understand why I find/see beauty and interest in such curious, odd, and, beauty wise, hitherto unknown and unfamiliar referents.
And that makes me think. Think about the world and my relationship with/to it. It takes me out the comfort zone of cultural / societal conventions and reassurances. In large part, that is because I sense a beauty in things beyond the obvious / conventional - something, even though I can not fully grasp / understand it, that is behind or beyond the mere surface of things.
IMO, James Agee stated it - the idea of getting beyond the obvious - best:
In the immediate world, everything is to be discerned..with the whole of consciousness, seeking to perceive it as it stands: so that the aspect of a street in sunlight can roar in the heart of itself as a symphony, perhaps as no symphony can: and all consciousness is shifted from the imagined, the revisive, to the effort to perceive simply the cruel* radiance of what is.
Assuming that one believes that "to perceive simply the cruel radiance of what is" - to put it another way, dealing with what is as opposed to the imaginary or revisive (wishful thinking) - is a worthy endeavor (and of in-estimable value in living a fruitful life), then, IMO, there is no better art medium than that of photography, with its inherent relationship with the real, to help one recognize the cruel radiance of what is.
*re: the world "cruel". IMO, in the use of that word, Agee meant cruel in the rigid / stern / strict sense of the word - not the causing or marked by great pain or distress sense of the word. I have arrived at this conclusion because the very next word he uses is "radiance" - meaning brightness or light ... warm, cheerful brightness.
Reader Comments (1)
Strangeness... now that is something to strive for!
Very interesting post today and thought provoking. I feel like I am taking a college level visual arts course and the professor shows up every day and I don't have to pay tuition. I am always amazed of how you can come up with such good content daily. Thank you.
John