The sublime landscape

Research using journals

This week’s seminar broadened my knowledge about how I look at landscape images, particularly when we talked about the meaning and representation of the sublime.  Now I understand that sublime is something impressive and magnificent, also frightening. Nature’s power, both physical and spiritual, have been pictured by artists who want to convey these feelings and the expression of the sublime. What can be greater and more frightening than the uncertainty that lies in nature and the constant changes of nature?

As I more think about the sublime I start to believe that it is actually a relation between nature and humans. We can describe a snowstorm, a hurricane or the most dangerous mountains as sublime but this is only our perception and it reflects our own fears, vulnerability and fragility as humans and how we perceive these natural phenomenons.

During my research my aim was to find a photographer whose body of work or project can describe this subjectivity and my understanding of sublime as described above.

Rinko Kawauchi’s photography has resonated with me since the first time I saw her images. She usually captures the beauty of ordinary moments in life that we often ignore. Her 6x6 medium format photographs are serene and poetic and very calming. 

In her project, called Murmuration, she shows us a bit more unnerving moments with the photos of the spectacle of flocking starlings at Brighton. At certain times, birds gather in tens of thousands and fly above the sea in a large group, creating a dark cloud. This natural behavior of these birds called murmuration, and although it is harmless, the strength of their unity, the dynamic of their flight and strong connection of them can be definitely chilling as well as very impressive.

“Panic is just around the corner, as it is in Brighton where the birds form a fancy figure on the sky before filling the frame with their terrifying noise and inexplicable urgency.

Those starlings along the coast at Brighton manoeuvre en masse with such dexterity that we can hardly keep track of them.  Something has always happened or is about to happen. We exist in a perpetual state of alertness and expectation.”

When we look at these images we can also sense the “high-pitched squealing of the birds”, “suddenness of their flight” and the “crashing of waves” and all these induce fear on their own.

Jeffrey, I. Rinko Kawauchi: Murmuration, Photoworks Autumn / Winter October – April 2010/11.  pg 26

http://www.culturelabel.com

http://www.rinkokawauchi.com

Photoworks

I feel these images, the landscapes of the sea and the vast amount of birds, grasp the feeling of sublime and nature’s relation to human beings and humans place within nature. The structured flight of these birds is natural to them and with no purpose to frighten us.