First off, apologies for being a day late. Secondly, apologies for a short post this week - I’m on a family holiday for a week so limited time to fit Substack writing time in. More on Portugal, holidays and tourists next week.
Ugly?
Beauty they say is in the eye of the beholder, but more accurately it is in the heart of the beholder. If it connects it has beauty. As humans we are genetically designed by evolution to appreciate beauty as symmetry, vitality, strength, health and social conformity. But as social beings we are constantly comparing, judging and ‘pigeon holing’ what we see to make sense of the world in our context.
And what we see as beauty is a combination of both of these things - the instinctive like/dislike and the social and cultural connection/disconnection. But our audience is not (always) like us.
Easy to please?
As a creator, I find that I often ‘default’ to the instinctive at the expense of the (more difficult) effort of context. Patterns, colours, geometry make great photos, but don’t really have much meaning. Objects and buildings can show context, but it’s harder to show possible meaning for the viewer. People are harder to photograph in this way - less controllable, harder to compose artistically (unless you’re directing them!), and with potentially many more interpretations.
For me, this is where I have to push myself more - writing this Substack and posting regularly has made me realise that conventional beauty is not enough - I need to (also) portray more meaning, or at least give more options to the viewer to find it.
Brutal, but likeable
Brutalist architecture has its detractors, but if nothing else it celebrates the man-made above all - and there are some great examples (Barbican centre in London). Unfortunately unless really well maintained, it looks pretty shabby quite quickly.
Which brings me to the photos from last week in Southampton! Interesting textures, other worldly beauty in some ways, but not soft ‘conventional’ beauty by any means. I would love to hear your thoughts on brutal beauty…
All photos taken on XPro3, edited on iPhone.
That’s all for this week -