Landscape and the Sublime

1. The enlightenment was an intellectual movement during the 18th century, in its simplest sense it was the creation not necessarily of a new framework of ideas but rather a framework or set of values amongst men. These values were base on themselves(human nature), society and nature its self. These new values challenged the traditional concepts and values which in the past were predominantly based around Christianity.

2. Sublime is derived from the latin word Sublimis which literally translates to; looking up from under the lintel, high, lofty, elevated, exalted. it is the quality of vast greatness or magnitude in many senses of the word, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. In particular it tends to be referred to as a greatness in which nothing else can be compared.

3. The concept of the sublime came out in the enlightenment period as the artists of the time had a new set of values. One being the new found recognition of the beauty in nature. Seeing the beauty British writers, taking the 'GrandTour' in the 17th and 18th centuries, first used the sublime to describe objects of nature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)

4. Richard Misrach's photography is typically of landscapes or seascapes and usually includes people or man made objects. He studies the landscape and man’s complex relationship to it. The people or objects in his photographs are tiny compared to the vast sea or landscapes.

5. Augustus Earle, Viviano Codazz, Max Podstolski

6. Misrach's photography gives me a god like feeling or upper being, looking down on people as small an insignificant compared to the vast magnitude of nature. The people seem very vulnerable and powerless to the forces of nature. The pieces impart a dark frame of mind upon me. I think of the world and mankinds correlation as foolish and ignorant. Evidence of this ignorance is broadcast to the world every day on the News. This news showing the force of nature so easily overpowering cities and towns and taking the lives of people, just as easily as we humans take from nature everyday, so too nature just as easily takes from us.

Although Misarch's pieces are very aesthetically pleasing, bright, beautiful and tranquil. I can not shake the feeling of depression as I look down on (from what seems the eyes of god) unworthy and ungrateful humans. The feeling of depression is drawn from my own guilt as I know I too am guilty of the above crimes against nature.

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