Interior // Exterior

For the discussion this week about the beautiful, picturesque, and sublime, I chose a handful of photos of undesigned landscapes that speak to me about one of these three categories. Below is the one I talked about in our class discussion.

I have been thinking about the picturesque in terms of moving through the landscape, but also as this thing that can speak to that as a picture. The time element is lost in the frame, but there is still a relationship between the composition of a photo and the moments that spaces create at the human scale when moving through it. A photo can easily communicate the feeling of enclosure by being composed as if the enclosing area is framing the open area. Below is a photo of the view from within the mountain gateway, looking out.

I was using this hollow, eight-foot sotol stalk as a balancing antenna in the high winds on the hike up there, sort of another interesting inverse of what might normally be a walking stick.

Still, I wonder what it is that makes us to eager to capture moments that are so experiential as photos. It does save the memory, but at the same time, every time I see an incredible sunset, even if it is just on my commute or in an ordinary setting, I am compelled to take a photo that does not at all capture the feeling of being there. Beauty has all these experiential layers that need to be peeled back and explored.

A designed frame around what I would consider the sublime mountains of El Potrero Chico

Growing up, when my family would go to restaurants I would run ahead to be seated so I could get the seat with my back to the wall. Years later I learned I wasn’t just picky about this, but everyone wanted to sit in a corner or against a wall looking outward. I love spaces with frames, nooks, and viewports like this. I also have a habit of scrunching up my legs, sitting like a squirrel in tight spaces all the time, which in a way I attribute to this affinity for small little spots. I guess there is a nest-feeling to little sanctuary spaces or even a womb. It’s kind of behavior described by the Cancer sign, a little crab very sensitive and collecting items in its home for the feeling of safety and security. Somehow I have managed to reference three different animals in this string of thoughts.