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reflection

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Hi Wolfgang
Perhaps the point of aesthetics is to put us at rest, to bring us to a point of appreciation that is contemplative without judgement or interpretation. Your photo reminds me that all is not lost. There are things worth appreciating just because they are. Your photo has calmed my ragged nerves somewhat.

Thanks for that

Tom
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Wolfgang
Perhaps the point of aesthetics is to put us at rest, to bring us to a point of appreciation that is contemplative without judgement or interpretation.......

Tom,

I have never pondered about the "point of esthetics" until now, but for sure your assertion is itself comforting.

So when art does call attention to some fault or new hope, have the boundaries of esthetics been violated?

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I found an interesting quip about aesthetics as a discipline:



"Aesthetics is for the artist
as Ornithology is for the birds."

— Barnett Newman

But we are not "the birds" and likewise we are not "the artist",
But we do appreciate them so much and therefore create both these fields of study!

Asher
 
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Wolfgang Plattner

Well-known member
Hi Wolfgang
Perhaps the point of aesthetics is to put us at rest, to bring us to a point of appreciation that is contemplative without judgement or interpretation. Your photo reminds me that all is not lost. There are things worth appreciating just because they are. Your photo has calmed my ragged nerves somewhat.

Thanks for that

Tom

You are welcome ...
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Tom,

I have never pondered about the "point of esthetics" until now, but for sure your assertion is itself comforting.

So when art does call attention to some fault or new hope, have the boundaries of esthetics been violated?

Asher

I'm beginning to see aesthetics being less about beauty and more a property of the image. That property being the quality of the image that affects our aesthetic perception.
If we take this as the case then those things that seem less aesthetic, such as installing fear, hatred, remorse, conflict, guilt, etc are still an aesthetic property of the image but take us away from the traditional enjoyment of the image and into a different appreciation. The 'beauty' lies within the ability for us to connect in some way.
A powerful and provocative image such as Wolfgang's is no more or less aesthetic as, say, the photo of The crippled hand of a Minamata disease victim by W. Eugene Smith. It just takes us in a different mental direction.

Aesthetics is a property of the image. not a goal. The goal is to find the place on the scale of things that best suits the image.

For This scene, Wolfgang's skills have given him the 'right' place.

xx
 
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