'Untitled' (2002) Richard Misrach
Richard Misrach's photography reflects the concept of the Sublime, from the Enlightenment.
Research Misrach's work by reading about his intentions, and also by looking at the work. Then answer the following questions;
1. What and when was the Enlightenment?
2. Define the concept of the Sublime.
3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?
4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Add some more images.
5. Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.
6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?
7. Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.
1. Enlightenment is European intellectual movement of the 17th-18th century in which ideas concerning God, reason, naure and man were blended into a worldview that inspired revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics.(British Concise Encyclopedia,2005)
2.According to Edmund Burke(1757), the sublime is the ultimate experience of divinity, a mixture of awe, fear, and enlightenment produced by the contemplation of powerful, terrifying nature. This is because the life of feeling and spirit depended on a harmony within the larger order of universe.
3.Before the Enlightenment, the nature on the earth,the landscape, considered to be secular and therefore sacrilege. However during the Enlightenment, new philosophy emerged; the association of between the power of nature and a recognition of the divinity, that the landscape or the nature scene in the art was no more to be considered as unholy. Furthermore the German artists during 18th century used landscape as scenes of Christian symbolisms, for example, David Friedrich (1774-1840) Cross in the Mountains.
4.&6. Monolake2. California (1999) is a scene of a lake in California. First of all, it is a breathtaking scene of a lake with amazing reflection of sky on the surface of the lake. The real beauty within this picture is the realistic and precise depiction of nature that we can not see very often. I think the sublime feature on this photo is the precision and accuracy of nature that makes the scene look divine. This photo makes me feel refreshing, clear and cool.
Cloud. Walker lake (1994) depicts a mountain ridge and a cloud at twilight. The colour of sky and the cloud in the photo is very bright and vibrant that contrast the colour of the mountain ridge contour. Also i can see the sun is going over the mountain. The cloud shows the rest-less movement with some sense of speed and on the other hand in the sense with stillness. I can not presume which way the cloud is heading and where it came from nor if it is moving towards the mountain or away from it. Cloud. Walker lake (1994) suggests the sublime as our eyes have no idea of what is really going on in the nature or in the sky because the nature belongs to the area of the divinity. However, i feel that i do not have to know everything when i look at this photo. I feel relaxed and indulged in dreamy thoughts.
Cloud. Walker lake (1994) awakes my curiosity about the cloud and Monolake2. California (1999) surprised me with beautiful exquisite scene of the lake. Both challenged me in different ways but the conclusion or my final opinion was the same, "nature is belong to the divinity."
Reference list
British Concise Encyclopedia (2005) from electric dictionary
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of Sublime and Beautiful, London, (1757) in Collected Works, T. W. Copeland, ed. London: 1865-1867
I really like that work because Richard Misrach's work is very beautiful. I think landscape is amazing though his eyes. 'Monolake 2 - California, 1999'. http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/09/interview-q-with-richard-misrach.html.
ReplyDeleteRM: From a technical standpoint the 8×10″ camera was the wrong tool for this project. It is a cumbersome suitcase that requires reloading for each shot and has slow shutter speeds. It is not good for quick captures or stopping movement. By the time I would set up the camera, focus, load the film holder, pull out the film slide and depress the shutter, my subjects had often literally swum out of the frame. So many great pictures were missed.
That said, the fine detail afforded by the large negative, when I did get what I wanted, was crucial to achieve the intimate gestures and grand scale of the work.
You are perhaps best known for your images of the American West. What drew you to that landscape? How do you choose a location?
RM: I was born in Los Angeles and surfed and skied growing up. The western landscape was my universe. Since 1968 I have had five Volkswagon campers which I’ve used to travel the West for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. I throw in my camera, food, film and some coolers with film holders, and head off without any destination in mind.
If it’s hot, I stay north, cold, I head to southern deserts. Basically, I wander around chasing the light from dawn to dusk and see what I can discover.
I usually found that if I had a preconceived idea for a project it wouldn’t amount to much. Discovery—an aggressive receptivity, if you will—of what is in the landscape provides the inspiration for new ideas.
With the advent of digital technology, photography has consolidated its position as the medium of the masses…what are your views on the prevalence of photography on the internet and the use of digital? How has it impacted your work?
RM: So far the omnipresence of imagery on the internet hasn’t had a huge impact on me. However, digital production has completely changed the way I work and think about photography. I haven’t shot film in almost two years and am now making all of my own prints again (haven’t done that since the 1970’s). Some prints are as large as 10×13 feet!
Having full access to the new technologies has encouraged me to play and experiment in ways that take me back to when I was a beginning photographer. And given that everyone now in college will have the same opportunities—access to the means of production and radical new tools—the medium is destined for big, important changes. I can’t imagine a more exciting period for photography.
Over the course of your career photography’s place in the world of fine art has shifted and evolved. Do you feel that the way that photography is perceived/accepted has changed significantly since you began?
RM: Despite historic claims to the contrary, photography was marginalized by the art world for a long time. However, in the last decade and a half, photography has been at the fore of art world practice. Moreover, when I began photography the idea of making a living selling work in galleries wasn’t even a fantasy. Now, for better or worse, photography has entered the art marketplace big time.
How did you break into photography and what advice would you give to aspiring photographers?
RM: I think it was in 1968 that I saw the work of a young photographer, Roger Minick, hung on a wall in a small gallery at UC Berkeley where I was a student. I was deeply moved by the content of the work and the beauty of the prints, and I knew immediately that was what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I had never felt that before. Advice to aspiring photographers—follow your passion and work hard. If you are worried about career or marketplace, find another line of work…
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ReplyDeleteI agree that you summarized about Enlightenment and what this work connects with concept of the Enlightenment. I think...the Enlightenment was an important turning point in European history. We can find dominant European thoughts with Enlightenment characteristic such as reason, Empiricism, science, and universe…etc simply in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Peter Hamilton provided ‘The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science’ (1992) which clearly suggested a paradigm of summary of the main philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment by division ten concepts. There were Reason, Empiricism, Science, Universalism, Progress, Individualism, Toleration, Freedom, Uniformity of human nature and Secularism.
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