Not to do certain things
13 March 2025
13 March 2025
“So much effort has had to go into trying not
to do certain things. Not to use the sky…to rescue the land. Not to be seduced
into celebrating the power of men and machines, which can have a Satanic beauty
and heroism about it. And not to aestheticize the carnage.” - Robert Adams
Words that make me think of this picture I took in Norway back in 2020. I was quite content with it, I remember, especially with how the clouds had turned out. (Not to use the sky.. ) The quote also reminds me of a comment that I received a couple of years ago, which stated that in my photographic work I seemed to be looking for some sort of reassuring aesthetic, regardless of moral, socially or critical aspects. The question raised is basically whether aesthetics and social criticism are mutually exclusive. I don’t think so. Aesthetics isn’t necessarily reassuring, it can also have a disruptive effect, because the viewer is tempted to find something beautiful that on a closer look actually is not. Perhaps providing a sense of aesthetics is another way of connecting viewer and landscape, and thus adding a sense of ownership and loss.
Words that make me think of this picture I took in Norway back in 2020. I was quite content with it, I remember, especially with how the clouds had turned out. (Not to use the sky.. ) The quote also reminds me of a comment that I received a couple of years ago, which stated that in my photographic work I seemed to be looking for some sort of reassuring aesthetic, regardless of moral, socially or critical aspects. The question raised is basically whether aesthetics and social criticism are mutually exclusive. I don’t think so. Aesthetics isn’t necessarily reassuring, it can also have a disruptive effect, because the viewer is tempted to find something beautiful that on a closer look actually is not. Perhaps providing a sense of aesthetics is another way of connecting viewer and landscape, and thus adding a sense of ownership and loss.