PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime

Photography in the Digital Age: Revealing Beauty and the Sublime

Introduction
There are many reasons to photograph and, perhaps many more reasons to look at photographs. One such reason is to reveal aesthetic beauty or the sublime, or, when viewing an image, to relate this to our own experiences. Writer and photographer Robert Adams (Adams, 1996) suggests that the goal of art is Beauty, and that Successful art rediscovers Beauty for us, which, reveals to us important Form that we ourselves have experienced but to which we have not paid adequate attention. However, In an age of mass consumption of information, data and images of any kind, which are capable of being transmitted in seconds across the world, can a 2D photographic image still compete to capture the imagination of a dulled audience to notice the beautiful or experience the sublime? And, does the medium of a photographic image affect this experience or is it the content itself that is being challenged to become more beautiful or universally sublime? From a personal perspective, the last time that I experienced something close to the sublime in art was about 18 months ago at Tate Liverpool. Here I came across a fascinating installation of a very ordinary wooden table and four chairs. The transformational feature of this installation was its scale; the table top was about 10-12 feet high with everything else proportionally scaled allowing the viewer to walk between, underneath and around the whole installation. My mind struggled to relate what I was seeing to my expectations based on past experience and understanding. I can best describe the experience as unnerving, leaving me feel slightly uncomfortable at something beyond the norm of my expectations, yet, at the same time it was wonderful and somewhat beautiful. Was this an experience of the sublime? It was certainly an experience that I have little noticed while looking at a 2D photographic image, whether digital or print.

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PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime

The Beautiful and the Sublime

The concept of distinctions in aesthetic terms between the beautiful and the sublime was first introduced in the 18th and 19th centuries. Edmund Burke, who was an eminent thinker of the time, was one of the first to make this distinction. The Open University (Open University prepared by Linda Walsh, 2004) summarises Burke's concept of the beautiful as an experience which is cheerful, joyous, pleasant and non-possessive [which] does not overwhelm or upset. In direct distinction, the sublime experience is defined as astonishment brought on by a kind of pleasurable terror. There have been various other attempts to define and explain these aesthetic concepts yet, today, the definition of beauty hasn't materially changed from Burkes original concept. On the other hand, the definition of the sublime remains a vague and often over-used concept which remains open to wider interpretations. A relatively recent interpretation by Morley (Morley, 2010) describes the contemporary sublime as a transformative experience which can either be envisaged from a perspective of revelation of ones own status in life between normality and spiritual awareness, or, more negatively, as a resigned sense of inadequacy, in which we are made aware of our emotional, cognitive, social and political failure when faced with all that so blatantly exceeds us. This seems to give a modern, introspective and personal view of the sublime based on spiritual and meditative transcendence. If accepted, it would suggest that the sublime experience is a personal one, yet one which the artist must attempt to transmit to a wider, universal audience. Morley (2010) (Morley, 2010) also describes how the most sublime artworks these days tend to be installations, and it is certainly proving harder and harder for painting, the traditional vessel for evoking visual sublimity, to elicit such effects. He further suggests that

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PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime photography, particularly in the digital medium, may be an opportunity for artists to overcome this problem. The relative 'newness' of photography, particularly digital photography, certainly allows opportunities for further interrogation and investigation but, at the same time, mass culture will continue to dull expectations and it is thus likely to face the same fate as paintings unless the photographer can find different and unique ways to exploit it.

Mass Culture and Image Saturation

Professor Ritchin (Ritchin, 2009) wrote, "Once the image begins to replace the world, photography loses its reason for being". In todays modern, technological world, many common views 1 can be accessed digitally through personal websites, blogs, e-mail, texts, Flickr, GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth, etc, etc, without ever having to experience such a view. The element of surprise at experiencing the unique beauty or sublimity of a view is at risk of being lost when it has been seen many times before in digital or hardcopy format. In this environment, a photograph needs to do more than record what can be seen to be universal in its attempt to capture the imagination of the individual. It thus seems to need to be more unique than the last, more beautiful than before, to portray the sublime in a way that hasn't been experienced before, or, most importantly, it has to stop us to look and maybe even think! Adams (1996) further suggests that a photograph should help in discovering the significance of a place2. Around the year 1990, the photographer Fay Godwin was attributed in helping the campaign to change access rights to the countryside through her thought provoking photography of the time, which highlighted the 'unfair' restrictions in place on accessing open countryside. Today, however, prominent environmental photographers such as Burtynksy and Salgado
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'view' can be replaced with 'subject' 'place' can be replaced with 'subject'

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PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime struggle to achieve similar outcomes of changing the minds and opinions of a jaded audience. Burtynsky's images of the industrial sublime, for example, appear more shocking, thought provoking, and arguably cover ever more important issues than Godwin's, yet they are at risk of trying to portray a message that, irrespective of its true importance, is regarded as too normal and presented in a manner that has been seen too often before. After all, the potential audience that the photographer is trying to convince are often those with access to multiple TVs and computer technology whereby shocking images of crime, murder and violence are regularly viewed. To such an audience, the photographer has to persuade them that their photographs are beyond the norm and should be paused upon for further contemplation. A challenging task in today's society. A more positive perspective on the impact of mass culture on the photograph is described by the academic Whamond (Whammond, 2005) who describes mass amateurisation of technology as 'extremely important in art and mass culture today', explaining that this amateurisation has changed it from the: "Medium that was once seen as cold, difficult and untrustworthy [into something that is] welcomed into the houses and hearts of millions. The image itself has not suffered a decline in status since digital has become its favoured format. We still trust the image to do what photography has always done; harbour memories, record events and bring the world closer." Our familiarity with the photographic image has certainly rendered it a more accessible and useable medium, particularly digital images, for capturing memories, recording events and bringing the world closer to us, but, at a time when its manipulation is also easily accessible and achievable then the question of trustworthiness becomes a more challenging concept.

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PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime

Mistrust of the Photograph

Mistrust of a photograph is arguably based on a growing assumption that the ease at which an image can be manipulated increases its ability to deceive, and its ability to be copied loses its aura and authority of authenticity. Walter Benjamin (Benjamin, 2003) wrote in his essay on "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" about how the aura of the original can become lost and indistinguishable when it is mechanically reproduced through photography and film (video). In today's society there appears less concern about the originality of a printed image which, even though it may have already been manipulated or misrepresented in its production, or copied from the original file, it is considered to be at the end of its journey and thus arguably more trustworthy and closer to the aura of authenticity associated with the original. The digital image, on the other hand, is more capable of further departures, further deceptions, and further copies. This fluidity of being at a constant point of departure can enhance the mistrust of it to be relied upon to be what it appears. Ritchen (Ritchin, 2009) wrote that 'In the digital arena one cannot with any certainty look at a photograph and say, "so that is how it was"'. He goes on, however, to discuss how this affects the image's relationship with memory and yet, surprisingly, how this can liberate the image. His argument is that whilst it may be natural to associate negatively to something that is not trustworthy, it can also be liberating to think of the digital image as something that isn't constrained by the need to remain shackled to our memory and has the ability to transcend into anything we are capable of making it.

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PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime

Ability of the Digital Image to Transcend into something New

It is uncertain where digital technology will take the photograph, or even if there is a future for the photograph, but the specific hunt for ways in which the sublime can be expressed in a photograph will require new approaches that break from the traditional and the expected. A key advantage of the digital photograph to achieve this is its ability to transform and transcend into something new. Whilst acknowledging that this might break the photographs link with experience, memory and truthfulness, it does provide the potential to create something unique and beyond our expectations. Morley (Morley, 2010) wrote in his essay: Perhaps it is indeed this new world [of the digital sublime], beyond the limits of the physical body, and of time and space, that the sublime experience is now migrating.

Conclusion
Accordingly to Morley (Morley, 2010), a sublime image is one that creates either a spiritual, uplifting transcendence, or, a raised self-awareness of our own inadequacy. Either way we are to be moved by what we see. According to Burke, the beautiful image remains pleasantly uplifting. In today's society, where mass culture and digital technology has brought us closer and closer to all kinds of everyday images of shock and amazement, the photograph has to do more and more if it is to reveal the sublime experience and separate it from the pleasantly beautiful. In light of this struggle to separate the truly sublime from the beautiful, it is surprising to note that contemporary art movements appear as much awash with 'sublimities' 3 as they are with their 'isms'. In contrast, to capture beauty is often viewed with distain as something closer to the kitsch. If the sublime experience is today almost unattainable in art then are these 'sublimities' a modern term for beauty?
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Morley (Morley, 2010) lists an initial 15 recognisable sublimities in his article on the contemporary sublime.

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PWDP Assignment 4 - Revealing Beauty and the Sublime The continuing challenge for the photographer in this context is, therefore, to further interrogate and investigate this medium to find different and unique ways to exploit it. This may then take it away from its traditional values, its past aura of authenticity, and its links with memory, experience and truthfulness, towards something unique and beyond our expectations to create a spiritual or meditative transcendence. The advantage of the digital image in this regard is its ability to transcend into something new, away from our expectations and more towards our imagination. The printed photograph will, at least in the short term, continue to reveal the significance of the thing and portray beauty by revealing form, as will the growing convenience of the digital photograph. The continuing ability of the printed photograph to reveal the sublime is, however, less certain and has perhaps already been lost (the trend towards printing huge may be its last attempt). The digital image will also struggle in this regard unless it moves away from merely copying the printed image and exploits the uniqueness of its own abilities.

Bibliography
Adams, R., 1996. Beauty in Photography. 2nd ed. Singapore: Aperture Foundation. Benjamin, W., 2003. Extracts from the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In: L. Wells, ed. The Photography Reader. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 42-52. Morley, S., 2010. Staring into the Contemporary Abyss - The Contemporary Sublime. [Online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss [Accessed 14 April 2013]. Open University prepared by Linda Walsh, 2004. Block 4: Industry and Changing Landscapes. 1st, reprinted 2005 ed. Oxford: Alden Group. Ritchin, F., 2009. Into the Digital. In: F. Ritchin, ed. After Photography. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, p. 23. Whammond, A., 2005. Everyday Pixels: Snapshots and Subjectivity Online. Academia.edu, I(I), pp. 16.

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