I really enjoyed this post, Gregory. I love all your photographs. Difficult to think of a favourite but the corrugated iron (b/w) one sticks in my mind.
The idea that you can find beauty in something that would 'normally' be considered ugly, chaotic, decrepit etc... is real. I always look for beauty in everything.
But IS everything beautiful? No. I spent ten years as an Interior Design consultant working with homeowners. It was fairly easy for me to imagine how homes could be made more beautiful, how they could be healthier and happier places to live in, despite the clutter and disarray that often presented itself.
Your post also made me think of smells. I don't know why. But even an aesthetically beautiful scene can be completely ruined if the scents aren't right.
Thanks for your comment, Yasmin! I believe that live is made much richer if we try looking for beauty all over—even though we won't always find it.
I hadn't associated this piece with smells, but now I will think about it. I wrote another one about sounds ("Sounds of My Bairro"), but I have yet to address smells in an essay. Maybe I should! Thanks for the idea.
Those crackled tiles from the Texture section are so beautiful!
I also have beauty among my core values! I love noticing moments like the ones you shared in this piece. I also love beautiful words, when something is done skillfully, the elegance of simple solutions... the list goes on.
You bring up the beauty of words, which I mentioned only in a footnote in an earlier piece, because this causes problems for my definition of beauty as something sensory. But beautiful language is, without question, one of life's great delights.
And simple solutions, yes! Scientists will often refer to a particular theory as "elegant", which is really a way of calling it beautiful.
I'm not a neuroscientist, but isn't it all about our senses? Whether it's a crack in a tile or the rhythm of language, we perceive with our senses. And for simple solutions, maybe with our "sixth sense"? :)
p.s. I'll go read your earlier piece now to see where you're coming from.
I really loved that piece. I wonder if you ever thought of giving some internet classes on "opening the eyes to non-canonical beauty". Or something like that. I would certainly attend those.
Wow, Renata, that's quite a compliment. I don't see myself as someone who has any real expertise to share on art or aesthetics, just my own views. I feel like this essay was the furthest I would dare go. But I really appreciate your vote of confidence!
I come from a family that prefers living in HOA neighborhoods with manicured lawns. And, that’s fine. That’s what they love and what they find beautiful. But a few years ago as my husband and I were exploring Portugal to find a region to live, I said to him that my family would never appreciate and understand the Portugal that I love: the graffiti, the laundry hanging outside, the colorful paint-peeling walls. I love all of your photos and see so much beauty. My phone has A LOT of wall and door photos, and colorful buildings against blue sky. (And, I was right—my family really didn’t understand when they visited. 😂)
Thanks, Lani! I'm glad you appreciated the piece. Yes, those of us who love the aesthetics here won't always be able to explain it to others (witness the fact that this post has been way less popular than my other ones!). I think it's very important that you have learned to divorce your own preferences from those of your family. We inherit some things, but we don't have to inherit everything, right?
Love the footnote as well! Haha. I too share the feeling that spending time outside the US had a strong influence on seeing things in different lights. Cheers, Gregory! Worth a follow. Keep it up!
Wow! This is why I love Marseille which I’ve heard it compared to Lisbon. Yes I love beautiful cities like Paris but I also love having to peer more closely and spend time looking for beauty. Thank you for sharing your piece.
A wonderful meditation on a splendid theme! I like how, from week to week, you seem to be varying more serious (and, well, more topical) topics—such as the promise and peril of being an immigrant—with lighter or more evergreen fare.
Let me toss into the mix an aesthetic principle that's deeply meaningful to me, and arguably relevant to this essay: Great art makes the familiar strange, or the strange familiar. What you call non-canonical art pleases us in part because it has this quality.
Thank you for the positive review, Mike! I will always vary the topics here, since I wouldn't be happy (and I suspect others ultimately wouldn't be either) if I wrote on the same topic every single week. I can agree with calling an essay on beauty "evergreen" (especially as I have pictures of actual evergreens in the piece), but I'm not sure I agree with "light". Just because it isn't amigdala-adjacent doesn't mean that beauty isn't a weighty and important topic, in my opinion.
I completely agree, however, that great art (and even my art) can make the familiar strange and the strange familiar. If non-canonical beauty is all about pointing out beauty in things too familiar to be noticed otherwise, then that is precisely what it does.
as a former professional photographer for 20 years and a nikon user, AND a lover of silly jokes, that footnote made my day. :) really appreciate this post and the timing of it. it's nice - and healing - to slow down and appreciate beauty. aesthetically i've also always been drawn to "ugly beauty." i used to shoot weddings and would refuse to take photos in front of fountains and gazebos (yawn) in favor of a cool side of a building with interesting texture and color, especially ones with graffiti on nyc streets. i loved the contrast of a dressed up wedding couple next to a graffiti'd wall, though not all couples agreed with my preferences! anyway, you have a great eye for composition and photographic humor. looking forward to seeing these kinds of details in lisbon myself soon.
I enjoyed your essay and thoughtful descriptions of non-canonical subjects. These things are exactly what I like to photograph myself - finding beauty in the ordinary,
My favorite images: the first one of park bench and grass. All the ones in light & color. And the plate of shiny olives, the car in the grass, the blue & white tiles, and the green door. Oh and Rua 15 with bench and cobblestones. Thanks for the invitation to look for beauty—everywhere.
Regina, I imagine that you have a lot of best friends! 🤣 I'm so pleased that you like the images. I have to confess that the olive picture makes me hungry every time I look at it. Mmmm, now I'm hungry again...
I really like the door with the balcony over it, the subtle colors and patterns, lovely. Also the vibrancy of the sliced oranges on a blue cloth or tray. We spent a week in Portugal a couple of years ago, and I’d love to go back! 😍
Jeanne, if you like subtle colors and patterns, there aren't many places better than Portugal! And the oranges are really cheap, too. You can have fresh-squeezed orange juice every day if you like. Small things like this can make an impact in one's quality of life, I find.
Love this! What a thoughtful and well-articulated analysis of the characteristics of beauty. Gaining an appreciation for unconventional beauty is a great way to expand our awareness and challenge deeply embedded aesthetic norms. There is a spot along the Southern Highway here in Belize where the jungle is ploddingly claiming a mess of wrecked cars. It's especially haunting (yet beautiful) during the evening golden hour. The juxtaposition of rusted metal and vibrant flora always draws me in. Full of texture and interest. I've always wanted to photograph it. Your piece has motivated me to finally make the effort next time I pass by! And thanks once again for the shout-out, Gregory.
If you ever get back to the States and the southern region, go to Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. My husband surprised me with a detour to it as we were driving home from a trip (we tend to detour, a lot!). It is an old iron processing factory, and beautiful! Iron is so many colors; so much of what we see in stones is iron. Orange, burgundy, purple, brown, yellow, red. Against those colors in various shapes is vivid green moss, or dead flower remnants hanging from decaying vines. I wish I'd known beforehand we were making that stop because I used up my camera memory before I was done (a relief to my husband because then we could leave and get home before dark).
Currently I'm reading Beneath Blue Cup by Rosalind Krause, which she wrote after suffering a brain aneurysm. It's not about the recovery so much as a exercise to make her brain remember and think again, by exploring post-Modernism, pushing back against the "aesthetic meaninglessness of the post-medium condition." Not an easy read but then, who wants easy, right? (See what I did there?)
Lastly, if you like Rothko, whose work is among my top favorites, you'll probably like Su Xiaobai's "paintings." He actually uses lacquer and oil paint, layering it on huge canvases until each is thick, cracks spidering over the surface, sometimes breaking. Lush!
What fabulous recommendations! Thank you, N! (No idea what N stands for—maybe I'll make something up, like Nasturtium. 😆) I will try to check these out when I have the time/opportunity.
I don’t think I could pick a favorite here… frankly, looks like the camera roll*on my phone! I am always a sucker for decaying buildings and unexpected geometries. And the light! Portugal offers so many gifts that way.
Your analysis of the elements of “ugliness” (a misnomer!) was really interesting. I shall have to re-read and think about it some more. Thanks for the brain food! (and the wonderful photos)
I really liked your photo of the old door with the 'puzzle pieces' of cobblestone revealed by the grass growing around them 🙂 And also the orange flowers bringing a nice back and forth play, or wink, to the orangy-ocre shown in the worn spots on the wall.
Hey, that's cool that you could see it in a different way!
PS Could you please tell me why my name appears above my comment? I thought that since I was requested to choose a 'handle' that it would be used and which I would prefer.
1. If you go to "Edit Profile" on Substack, you can enter your name (which is what will be displayed) and your handle (which starts with @ and is how you are indexed on Substack—this is what people use to refer to you). You can vary these independently.
2. I strongly prefer that people DO use their real name on Substack, which for the most part seems to be the praxis. Hiding behind an alias makes it much more difficult to achieve connection with other people, which is something that Substack facilitates more than other platforms. Using an alias is a bit like going to a masked ball rather than a party. But of course, you do what you want. Do you want me to remove your name from my reply?
I really enjoyed this post, Gregory. I love all your photographs. Difficult to think of a favourite but the corrugated iron (b/w) one sticks in my mind.
The idea that you can find beauty in something that would 'normally' be considered ugly, chaotic, decrepit etc... is real. I always look for beauty in everything.
But IS everything beautiful? No. I spent ten years as an Interior Design consultant working with homeowners. It was fairly easy for me to imagine how homes could be made more beautiful, how they could be healthier and happier places to live in, despite the clutter and disarray that often presented itself.
Your post also made me think of smells. I don't know why. But even an aesthetically beautiful scene can be completely ruined if the scents aren't right.
Well, perhaps I'll leave it there...
Thanks for stirring my brain!
Thanks for your comment, Yasmin! I believe that live is made much richer if we try looking for beauty all over—even though we won't always find it.
I hadn't associated this piece with smells, but now I will think about it. I wrote another one about sounds ("Sounds of My Bairro"), but I have yet to address smells in an essay. Maybe I should! Thanks for the idea.
Those crackled tiles from the Texture section are so beautiful!
I also have beauty among my core values! I love noticing moments like the ones you shared in this piece. I also love beautiful words, when something is done skillfully, the elegance of simple solutions... the list goes on.
Thank you, Alisa! I too am a sucker for texture.
You bring up the beauty of words, which I mentioned only in a footnote in an earlier piece, because this causes problems for my definition of beauty as something sensory. But beautiful language is, without question, one of life's great delights.
And simple solutions, yes! Scientists will often refer to a particular theory as "elegant", which is really a way of calling it beautiful.
I'm not a neuroscientist, but isn't it all about our senses? Whether it's a crack in a tile or the rhythm of language, we perceive with our senses. And for simple solutions, maybe with our "sixth sense"? :)
p.s. I'll go read your earlier piece now to see where you're coming from.
I really loved that piece. I wonder if you ever thought of giving some internet classes on "opening the eyes to non-canonical beauty". Or something like that. I would certainly attend those.
Wow, Renata, that's quite a compliment. I don't see myself as someone who has any real expertise to share on art or aesthetics, just my own views. I feel like this essay was the furthest I would dare go. But I really appreciate your vote of confidence!
I come from a family that prefers living in HOA neighborhoods with manicured lawns. And, that’s fine. That’s what they love and what they find beautiful. But a few years ago as my husband and I were exploring Portugal to find a region to live, I said to him that my family would never appreciate and understand the Portugal that I love: the graffiti, the laundry hanging outside, the colorful paint-peeling walls. I love all of your photos and see so much beauty. My phone has A LOT of wall and door photos, and colorful buildings against blue sky. (And, I was right—my family really didn’t understand when they visited. 😂)
Thanks, Lani! I'm glad you appreciated the piece. Yes, those of us who love the aesthetics here won't always be able to explain it to others (witness the fact that this post has been way less popular than my other ones!). I think it's very important that you have learned to divorce your own preferences from those of your family. We inherit some things, but we don't have to inherit everything, right?
Love the footnote as well! Haha. I too share the feeling that spending time outside the US had a strong influence on seeing things in different lights. Cheers, Gregory! Worth a follow. Keep it up!
Thanks very much, Hanz!
Wow! This is why I love Marseille which I’ve heard it compared to Lisbon. Yes I love beautiful cities like Paris but I also love having to peer more closely and spend time looking for beauty. Thank you for sharing your piece.
I'm so glad you liked it! I have never really been to Marseille, but now I want to go!
A wonderful meditation on a splendid theme! I like how, from week to week, you seem to be varying more serious (and, well, more topical) topics—such as the promise and peril of being an immigrant—with lighter or more evergreen fare.
Let me toss into the mix an aesthetic principle that's deeply meaningful to me, and arguably relevant to this essay: Great art makes the familiar strange, or the strange familiar. What you call non-canonical art pleases us in part because it has this quality.
Thank you for the positive review, Mike! I will always vary the topics here, since I wouldn't be happy (and I suspect others ultimately wouldn't be either) if I wrote on the same topic every single week. I can agree with calling an essay on beauty "evergreen" (especially as I have pictures of actual evergreens in the piece), but I'm not sure I agree with "light". Just because it isn't amigdala-adjacent doesn't mean that beauty isn't a weighty and important topic, in my opinion.
I completely agree, however, that great art (and even my art) can make the familiar strange and the strange familiar. If non-canonical beauty is all about pointing out beauty in things too familiar to be noticed otherwise, then that is precisely what it does.
as a former professional photographer for 20 years and a nikon user, AND a lover of silly jokes, that footnote made my day. :) really appreciate this post and the timing of it. it's nice - and healing - to slow down and appreciate beauty. aesthetically i've also always been drawn to "ugly beauty." i used to shoot weddings and would refuse to take photos in front of fountains and gazebos (yawn) in favor of a cool side of a building with interesting texture and color, especially ones with graffiti on nyc streets. i loved the contrast of a dressed up wedding couple next to a graffiti'd wall, though not all couples agreed with my preferences! anyway, you have a great eye for composition and photographic humor. looking forward to seeing these kinds of details in lisbon myself soon.
Thank you, Karen! I really appreciate that. And I'm glad the joke brought a smile to your face.
Wow, incredible pictures! I love seeing the beauty in the mundane, even the supposedly ugly.
Thank you, Claire!
I enjoyed your essay and thoughtful descriptions of non-canonical subjects. These things are exactly what I like to photograph myself - finding beauty in the ordinary,
Thanks very much, Susan! I'm glad that we're on the same wavelength.
My favorite images: the first one of park bench and grass. All the ones in light & color. And the plate of shiny olives, the car in the grass, the blue & white tiles, and the green door. Oh and Rua 15 with bench and cobblestones. Thanks for the invitation to look for beauty—everywhere.
Regina, I imagine that you have a lot of best friends! 🤣 I'm so pleased that you like the images. I have to confess that the olive picture makes me hungry every time I look at it. Mmmm, now I'm hungry again...
I really like the door with the balcony over it, the subtle colors and patterns, lovely. Also the vibrancy of the sliced oranges on a blue cloth or tray. We spent a week in Portugal a couple of years ago, and I’d love to go back! 😍
Jeanne, if you like subtle colors and patterns, there aren't many places better than Portugal! And the oranges are really cheap, too. You can have fresh-squeezed orange juice every day if you like. Small things like this can make an impact in one's quality of life, I find.
Love this! What a thoughtful and well-articulated analysis of the characteristics of beauty. Gaining an appreciation for unconventional beauty is a great way to expand our awareness and challenge deeply embedded aesthetic norms. There is a spot along the Southern Highway here in Belize where the jungle is ploddingly claiming a mess of wrecked cars. It's especially haunting (yet beautiful) during the evening golden hour. The juxtaposition of rusted metal and vibrant flora always draws me in. Full of texture and interest. I've always wanted to photograph it. Your piece has motivated me to finally make the effort next time I pass by! And thanks once again for the shout-out, Gregory.
That sounds amazing, Simo! I want to see the pictures you take of it.
If you ever get back to the States and the southern region, go to Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. My husband surprised me with a detour to it as we were driving home from a trip (we tend to detour, a lot!). It is an old iron processing factory, and beautiful! Iron is so many colors; so much of what we see in stones is iron. Orange, burgundy, purple, brown, yellow, red. Against those colors in various shapes is vivid green moss, or dead flower remnants hanging from decaying vines. I wish I'd known beforehand we were making that stop because I used up my camera memory before I was done (a relief to my husband because then we could leave and get home before dark).
Currently I'm reading Beneath Blue Cup by Rosalind Krause, which she wrote after suffering a brain aneurysm. It's not about the recovery so much as a exercise to make her brain remember and think again, by exploring post-Modernism, pushing back against the "aesthetic meaninglessness of the post-medium condition." Not an easy read but then, who wants easy, right? (See what I did there?)
Lastly, if you like Rothko, whose work is among my top favorites, you'll probably like Su Xiaobai's "paintings." He actually uses lacquer and oil paint, layering it on huge canvases until each is thick, cracks spidering over the surface, sometimes breaking. Lush!
What fabulous recommendations! Thank you, N! (No idea what N stands for—maybe I'll make something up, like Nasturtium. 😆) I will try to check these out when I have the time/opportunity.
I don’t think I could pick a favorite here… frankly, looks like the camera roll*on my phone! I am always a sucker for decaying buildings and unexpected geometries. And the light! Portugal offers so many gifts that way.
Your analysis of the elements of “ugliness” (a misnomer!) was really interesting. I shall have to re-read and think about it some more. Thanks for the brain food! (and the wonderful photos)
(*see smrs_observes on instagram)
Thanks, Caroline! I will check out your Instagram account. My use of “ugliness” was meant to be provocative, of course.
And yes, the light here is w o n d e r f u l !
Bonjour from France,
I really liked your photo of the old door with the 'puzzle pieces' of cobblestone revealed by the grass growing around them 🙂 And also the orange flowers bringing a nice back and forth play, or wink, to the orangy-ocre shown in the worn spots on the wall.
Bonjour, Kathy! Thank you. Isn’t it cool what happens when grass grows between cobblestones?
Also: nice observation about the orange flowers picking up the rust spots—I hadn’t thought about that consciously before!
Hey, that's cool that you could see it in a different way!
PS Could you please tell me why my name appears above my comment? I thought that since I was requested to choose a 'handle' that it would be used and which I would prefer.
Let me respond by saying two things:
1. If you go to "Edit Profile" on Substack, you can enter your name (which is what will be displayed) and your handle (which starts with @ and is how you are indexed on Substack—this is what people use to refer to you). You can vary these independently.
2. I strongly prefer that people DO use their real name on Substack, which for the most part seems to be the praxis. Hiding behind an alias makes it much more difficult to achieve connection with other people, which is something that Substack facilitates more than other platforms. Using an alias is a bit like going to a masked ball rather than a party. But of course, you do what you want. Do you want me to remove your name from my reply?
Thanks a lot for all those details! I understand and will go with the common practice here.