Tuesday, April 22, 2008

on beauty

After 2 hours of trying to make myself heard over 10 cellos I have lost my voice (again), and I never knew how much I needed it until I remember I don't stop teaching until...next Monday. Mondays are Voice Rest Days.

Today I saw a stunning picture. Actually, make that 3 stunning pictures, like uncracked seashells among a bed of sharp rocks, the kind of photos that make you stop and stare, at the colours, the texture, the light and shadows. It made me want to find out about the person who took those shots, because I assume that in each published picture lies a fraction of the soul of a person, a part of the self that can appreciate beauty in unexpected places. I assume.

I know the person who took the photos, through many degrees of separation and then none, but the photos were so insistently stunning it killed me and I had to write about it. Imagine the sky, and then the sand and then the sea. There is an overdose of blue, and there are many shadows, and only shadows, dark outlines that help you understand what it is you are seeing, but it takes you a while to figure out the perspective.

There are no people in those photos, because people posing makes the camera a fake eye. These are shots of nature's movement.

"But since they are about nature, shouldn't it be nature and its creator you laud instead of the photographer?"

Yes, but there is the unexpected perspective that makes all the difference, and it has been eons since I last saw a nicely composed picture. Maybe I'm just aesthetically starved.

No comments: