When I Was A Photographer - The Desolate Beauty Of Ugliness
As I've mentioned before, when I was a photographer I was really into a thing called ugly beauty. I was obsessed with taking pictures of delicate and beautiful things, in a harsh setting.
The top photo was taken near my house when I used to live in Acton around 24 years ago, I would pass this derelict garage everyday and stare at the broken down car and the deprivation.
Sometimes I would just stand there for as long as 10 or 15 minutes, completely oblivious to all the people passing me, probably thinking *'what's that nutter staring at?'
I didn't care though, to me I saw beauty in degradation, and I wanted to show that. So I got my friend to pose for me, and I eventually ended up using this image on my card.
I simply titled it All Things Beautiful.
* * * *
This image was taken around the same place, we went back up to my house so that she could change into this skirt. I loved it because it looked like it could rip at any moment.
The funny thing was, less than a month or so after we took these images, somebody started developing the site and therefore cut off all access to it. They built some apartments on it, and that was that, nobody would ever see that beautiful ugly spot ever again.
I was strangely sad about that, but of course happy that I managed to take the shots before it was gone forever.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Mmm yes, I like that :-)
Cg
Maybe the harsh setting is a contrast, that reminds us that the beauty we see will fade, which makes us appreciate that fragile temporary beauty.
How poignant that in this case, the harsh setting also was destined to fade.
Now, all that is left are these pictures, in which we see the original beauty, and the original conception, radiant as ever.
Reflections of Xanadu.
It fades in our eyes but never in our hearts :-)
Cg
Too good, that you preserved that ugly beautiful garage by your lens:)
Now it has become a permanent memory...
Wow, see how you make sense out of such an ugly site... Lol
Well, it take someone patient and intelligent enough to combine things like this together....
I have a friend like too @evalove, she can give attention to almost anything, she take pictures of almost everything too... Lol
The contrast of the broken down car and graffiti to the natural beauty of your model it great. Think that to many try and make all things fit into a nice neat box, if you are going for beauty you surround the subject with more beauty. Personally I like the contrast. Plus I have a thing for B&W photos as they seem more timeless to me.
Might be cool to play with the first one one day and make the background all B&W while leaving the model in full color.
You have magic in your hands. All your artworks are famous. Everything can be described in a beautiful way. Who is such a beautiful representation of a broken vehicle? Waiting for the next post.