Sunrise over the sea
[You need to enlarge the photograph and read the description for this one.]
Can you spot the figures in this sunrise over the sea? I've borrowed them from a sublime painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrise_by_the_Sea#/media/File:Cas...
Friedrich took his landscapes very seriously indeed because (like many Romantic artists and poets) he believed the work was revelatory. In other words, it was an expression of the sublime in Nature and not merely a picture. The Romantics elevated landscape to the realm of the Transcendental. I've discussed Friedrich previously in a comment on "Caspar's Ghost" www.flickr.com/photos/luminosity7/49678826142/in/album-72...
The danger - if we might call it that - of beautiful landscapes, sunsets or sunrises lies precisely in the fact that we might simply view them as pretty. For Caspar David Friedrich this would have meant the ultimate insult to his creative vision. His work existed merely in order to point to a greater truth or profundity. Often this meant Friedrich included some obvious symbols of transcendence such as a cross, a ruined abbey or a graveyard. And in this instance you'll see the figures he painted looking out at the stormy sea at sunrise. They are literally absorbed into the experience. Friedrich calls it "surrendering".
Friedrich himself liked to go out alone to experience Nature:
“I have to stay alone and know that I am alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature; I have to surrender to what surrounds me, unite with my clouds and rocks, in order to be what I am. I need solitude for a dialogue with nature. Once I spent an entire week in the Uttewald Abyss amid rocks and firs, and throughout this time I did not meet a single living soul; it is true, I do not recommend this method to anyone — it was too much even for me: involuntarily, gloom enters the soul.”
The key word in this Romantic vision is the SUBLIME. In the next photograph I'll say a little more about that (these two photos obviously belong together).
So on this morning when I awoke to drive from St Helens to a place called The Gardens in the Bay of Fires, the rain was falling lightly. I didn't think there was much prospect of a good sunrise shot, but thought I'd enjoy the quiet moment of reflection and take my chances. At The Gardens you quite literally come to the end of the road. The only company I had was some rather sodden cows in a field that I'll introduce you to tomorrow. There was a feeling of silence, but in fact the wind was howling.
The rain let up enough for me to get in a few shots. This one shows a previous storm that had been blown out to sea. But soon the wind blew in another downpour and it was time to pack up and go.
Sunrise over the sea
[You need to enlarge the photograph and read the description for this one.]
Can you spot the figures in this sunrise over the sea? I've borrowed them from a sublime painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrise_by_the_Sea#/media/File:Cas...
Friedrich took his landscapes very seriously indeed because (like many Romantic artists and poets) he believed the work was revelatory. In other words, it was an expression of the sublime in Nature and not merely a picture. The Romantics elevated landscape to the realm of the Transcendental. I've discussed Friedrich previously in a comment on "Caspar's Ghost" www.flickr.com/photos/luminosity7/49678826142/in/album-72...
The danger - if we might call it that - of beautiful landscapes, sunsets or sunrises lies precisely in the fact that we might simply view them as pretty. For Caspar David Friedrich this would have meant the ultimate insult to his creative vision. His work existed merely in order to point to a greater truth or profundity. Often this meant Friedrich included some obvious symbols of transcendence such as a cross, a ruined abbey or a graveyard. And in this instance you'll see the figures he painted looking out at the stormy sea at sunrise. They are literally absorbed into the experience. Friedrich calls it "surrendering".
Friedrich himself liked to go out alone to experience Nature:
“I have to stay alone and know that I am alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature; I have to surrender to what surrounds me, unite with my clouds and rocks, in order to be what I am. I need solitude for a dialogue with nature. Once I spent an entire week in the Uttewald Abyss amid rocks and firs, and throughout this time I did not meet a single living soul; it is true, I do not recommend this method to anyone — it was too much even for me: involuntarily, gloom enters the soul.”
The key word in this Romantic vision is the SUBLIME. In the next photograph I'll say a little more about that (these two photos obviously belong together).
So on this morning when I awoke to drive from St Helens to a place called The Gardens in the Bay of Fires, the rain was falling lightly. I didn't think there was much prospect of a good sunrise shot, but thought I'd enjoy the quiet moment of reflection and take my chances. At The Gardens you quite literally come to the end of the road. The only company I had was some rather sodden cows in a field that I'll introduce you to tomorrow. There was a feeling of silence, but in fact the wind was howling.
The rain let up enough for me to get in a few shots. This one shows a previous storm that had been blown out to sea. But soon the wind blew in another downpour and it was time to pack up and go.