I've been berated in the photo club community (in the far past) for photographing pretty things like dew on cob webs, and I am sure a rainbow would be in that category too.
A famous Danish photographer prides himself on never having photographed a flower.
But why limit ourselves? Some of van Gogh's most brilliant paintings were of flowers.
And while I don't expect to make immortal art photographing a rainbow, why not just bend to a little prettiness once in a while.
A corollary is how a very pretty person who is also very bright (Sharon Stone or Natalie Portman for example) has to struggle to be perceived as anything but decoration.
Maybe this is a comment that comes over strange... but I think sometimes I'd rather swap being bright for being pretty. Not always, though, but there are always those moments...
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between something that's beautiful and pretty? Isn't it the person's own perception?
Ah, Hanna
ReplyDeleteYou bring to mind that old saw, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".
To be beautiful one doesn't necessarily have to be pretty, but to be pretty one must be beautiful. the older one get's the truer it becomes. Even if the aging process is but a few weeks. Let me illustrate.
When I was eighteen and serving in the RAF I used to get a ride home on the pillion seat of my pal's motor bike.
At last I met his girl-friend about whom he was absolutey crazy. She wasn't pretty, just plain. If she walked down the street she wouldn't garner a second glance certainl not a wolf whistle (that was OK in those days).
She did have an amazingly erotic figure fully clothed, but it was the girl herself. Over the next few weeks as the three of us spent more time together I became more aware of her as a complete person and realized what a truly lovely and beautiful girl she truly was. I noticed the sparkle and liveliness of her beautiful eyes, the small upturn at the corners of her mouth, the acuteness of her mind.
I could go on and on.
Suffice to say she was not pretty but she was truly beautiful. She also taught me at the right age to look a little deeper than the surface. In finishing I'd like to paraphrase anther old saw, "Prettiness is only skin deep" for true beauty comes from within.