An Arguement for Beauty

Beauty isn’t about just looking good. I don’t get excited about every color photo or lens flare that I see. The photograph has to evoke a sensual experience within me to become beautiful and here is where the split between classroom and myself takes place. Generally during crit. and discussion we talk about images in relation to rules of composition, artistic intent, ‘how did they do it’, or even in nitpicky ways like there’s some small element in the background that’s distracting. While all these are valid they only account for vision which, let’s face it, is a blunt instrument. Like a camera, vision cannot account for anything other than what’s in front of it. It is through our other senses where meaning, interpretation, and value take place. We do this all the time in everyday life. Clothes feel good just as much as look good, food is informed by smell as much as taste, and who hasn’t experienced music with the power to move you emotionally. So why is it when we talk about photos all we can say is whether it looks good or not? We need to re-remember how to ‘see’, not just with our eyes but through our entire body. In creating my own work or viewing others I want photos that feel as much as look good.
Let me use these examples as a starting point. I’m confident in assuming that everyone has encountered images of pornography. With their ability to cause physical arousal, this sort of bodily response is not uncommon in other types of images as well. Photos of war or even something like surgery can cause the viewer to turn away, the body protecting itself physically unable to look at the image. Or think of cook books and food ads with the images so appealing you can almost taste it. These sort of carnal responses, though regularly experienced, are considered too base (or at worst, manipulative) to be taken seriously. However, it is just such responses I value the most. I have experienced the physical sensation of sex, bodily pain, and fine dinning. I understand these images not by learned knowledge but by actual experience. My vision is informed by an entire history of carnal knowledge and is being called upon to create and give meaning to what I’m looking at. Vision is not something separate from our other senses.



Hands down this is one of my favorite photos. (Side note: Ryan McGinley is without a doubt a ‘cinesthetic’ photographer. By all accounts I should be in love with the guy, and in individual instances I am. There’s just some nagging feeling that prevents me from wholly embracing him. I think it’s the quasi-documentary approach. Just because they’re nonprofessionals doesn’t mean they’re not actors or maybe I’m being too serious that his photos, specifically I Know Where the Summer Goes, aren’t really to be taken as snapshots. I haven’t come to terms with this by any means but I digress..) The subject matter couldn’t be more simple, girl in the back of a moving truck taking a drink from a styrofoam cup. Of course, that’s not what the photo’s about. I’m unsure about where to start not wanting to establish a hierarchy of elements, but lets go with movement. Taken from the inside of the bed of the truck the outside world is passing by in a blur. Although not ‘readable’ you can establish through context and inference they are driving through some desert like landscape. While the figure is sharp and still, her hair is being blown over the top of her head. Taken at eye level next to the girl the camera’s eye becomes mine and now I am in the back of the truck as well. The power and speed of the truck can be felt, the wind passing through my hair as well. Most likely its late afternoon, the warmth and glow of the light is apparent. Not only is this girl passing in movement with the landscape but her skin is taking on the warmth and color of it as well with the blue of the truck and shadows played below the flat blue sky. The chill of the wind is getting mixed up with the warmth of the setting sun. As a fair skin person I can feel the sun and the subsequent burn it will cause. While looking at this photo my mind wanders off. I begin to recall road trips. The boredom of being a passenger and having the time to contemplate all that’s around me. Exhust, dirt, pavement, dust all colliding into one familiar smell. The girls drink, positioned in a blank cup, is whatever you want it to be- water, soda, road soda. She can even become my girlfriend as I watch her while we share this drink. Why not? All answers are valid. The longer I look at the photo the deeper I enter into it and it's the world outside of me that becomes a blur.
Now I’m not stupid. I know I can’t really feel the wind or sun, taste the drink, and I’m not even in the desert but at home. What I do have is a real sensual experience from my own life I can relate to. Informed by this my mind and senses are activated by the photograph. This image is transcendent to me. In a way it’s what I love about photography, this ability to capture something that is fundamentally unshareable. But I can totally see someone reading this (maybe you) and thinking, “Whatever. I don’t give a fuck about the quality of light.” or “You’re joking, right? It’s a two dimensional object it doesn’t work like that.” or “Whatever. If I want to experience that I’ll just go on a road trip myself.” It would be dismissive but that person would have a point. These types of images don’t just hand you a sensual viewing experience or even try to convince you of their power. You have to be a willing participant to enter into this type of exchange. Engaged with the image objectivity and subjectivity lose their charity and I am lost, melting into the image. Now someone can study it, understand it, and even respect this point of view without completely agreeing with it. Then again, these sort of photos automatically ‘click’ for others who need no convincing and have been on the lookout for images such as these most of their lives.
What do I think? Beauty is internal, something personal that stems from a lived body. Beauty is carnal responses, a multi-sensual experience where we ‘touch’ and are ‘touched’ by it. Beauty is willingly entered into and, then again, can hit you unexpectedly. Beauty is a space to construct your own theories, engaging with art and the world on an intuitive level. Beauty goes beyond vision.