A Photo Journey of Photo Basel (2) 📷 | 巴塞尔摄影展 (二)

Following on from my previous post about Photo Basel, I'll show you some more projects about which I spoke with the photographer or gallerist.

These beautiful poetic images by Kathrin Linkersdorff attracted lots of attention including mine. Her architect work experience in Japan had provided influences to her art, such as the wabi-sabi philosophy that inspired this flower series.

I was intrigued by how it's created and was told that the pigments were first removed from the flower petals. Colorants were added later to capture the moments of fading transience and fleeting beauty. More or less like this, if I got the half-English and half-German explanation right...life is hard for an Asian in Europe listening to some abstract art talk that's not in her mother tongue...XD.

Thankfully, I can still see and feel the photos. Light, translucent, fragile yet resilient... sitting somewhere between the classical still life painting and modern abstract presentation, these images are deeply fascinating.

I am interested in the fleeting nature of flowers as a metaphor. My photographs fathom the essence and concealed structures of any living organism.

Speaking of wabi-sabi, the view seems to have been popular in the West for many years, and I could easily find books about it in the art or lifestyle sections of a local bookstore (I know, I'm an old school, still buying and reading lots of paper books). The exact meaning of wabi-sabi is hard to pin down, but it loosely refers to the beauty of imperfection and impermanence.

Some essences include the beauty of remote loneliness, asymmetry, aging, modesty, withered, unfinished, minimal, rustic, small moments... and they are commonly seen also in contemporary art and design aesthetics.

This reminds me of another frequently mentioned concept, Japanese yugen, which evolved from Chinese xuan dating back to the 2nd century. It's described as a profound, elusive, sad and mysterious beauty of the universe and human suffering. The dark and somber images conjure up a sense of the awe-inspiring "sublime" in the Western arts.

If you are interested to know more about the set of values, the little book In Praise of Shadows is a good place to start. It's a short essay written by the well-known Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki. I read it on the road during my travels, and it was a perfect fit for a dark raining evening in the wild. It's strangely soothing listening to a wise old man ramble about all the shadows, darkness, and patinas... the sweetness and sorrow of life.

And I, too, rambled on too much about this flower series today. So I'll have to leave the remaining photo projects for another post (maybe)... ;p

接着上一篇的巴塞尔摄影展，今天向大家展示一组"花仙子"系列照片。

这些诗意的图像由凯瑟琳• 林克斯多夫创作。她出生于德国，在日本的建筑师工作经历给她的艺术创造提供了养分，这个系列的摄影就是受到日本传统侘寂美学的影响。

我很好奇这些特别的花是怎么拍出来的，就问了下画廊人，说是先把花瓣本身的色素抽除，之后再融进新的颜料，以捕捉这瞬间的变幻和即逝的美感。

轻盈、半透明、卷曲又舒展、脆弱而又有韧性...... 这些图片介于古典静物画和现代抽象照之间，着实迷人。

我对花朵转瞬即逝的本质很感兴趣，以此作为一种隐喻。我的摄影试图深入了解生物体的本质和隐藏的结构。

说到侘寂，这个概念似乎已经在西方流行了很多年，经常在各城市书店的艺术或生活方式专区看到相关的书。确切含义不容易界定，大致指的是不完善和无常的美。

我又想起另一个常常被提及的日式概念，幽玄，其实是从2世纪的中国玄学演变而来的。它被描画为一种深刻的、悲伤的、神秘的、难以捉摸的人类苦难和宇宙之美。那些昏暗、深沉和阴郁的形象让我想到西方艺术中的“崇高”(sublime)，与秀美相对，是种令人敬畏的美。

如果有兴趣了解类似的美学，我推荐《阴翳礼赞》，谷崎润一郎的随笔， 薄薄的一本小书。我在旅途中几天看完的，感觉很适合在安静昏暗的雨夜阅读。听这位睿智、敏感又有点古怪的文豪絮絮叨叨地谈着那些阴翳的幽玄、生活的苦，和不经意中的甜，心里有种莫名的宽慰。

^{All content by @itchyfeetdonica. Thank you for visiting!
图文 by Donica，谢谢来访！=)}

---

---

For the best experience view this post on Liketu