Quote of the Day - 12/29/2011

Beauty is the universal seen. - Alfred Stieglitz (quoted in Beauty in Photography by Robert Adams)

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Each of us may not know exactly how to describe beauty but we know it when we see it. The gist of what Stieglitz seems to say is that there is a universal aspect to beauty. Do you agree? How similar is our perception of beauty to that of others?

I would be more comfortable with the notion that there is a ‘universal seen’ aspect of beauty…but it is not all encompassing (i.e. there may be some perception of beauty that we all share - the universal seen - but it seems that there are obvious variations forged by culture and experience that can tweak our perception and enlarge what we as an individual perceive as beauty.

Take an example of a face of a 90 year old woman. Some of us would not see beauty in that face. Others would easily see a beloved grandmother or mother….and beauty.

Another example: the face of a model with perfect skin and proportioned features. Many people would see beauty in that face. A few would find it too prefect and, while acknowledging that many saw beauty, would not find the face all that interesting or even beautiful.