EX64 Wabi Sabi
This week someone from Len’s Club asked about Wabi Sabi. The Japanese concept that celebrates and acknowledges the beauty in the imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. Leonard Koren bought this concept to artists in the west with his book.
Trying to define the concept of Wabi Sabi in a few words is fraught with problems. Particularly as we westerners miss much of the history and subtly that the translations can never capture. To say it is the beauty in ‘imperfection’ is woefully inadequate.
I suggest you study up on what Wabi Sabi is before you start down the path of pursing it as a photographic subject.
Here are some ideas for you about Wabi Sabi:
The Art of Imperfection
Beauty in the Transient
Embracing Damaged
Celebrating Asymmetric
The Joy of the Unconventional
Impermanent and Incomplete
Nothing in life is finished or permanent
Perfection doesn’t exist
Enjoying the passing of time
The Joyful Aesthetics of Errors
Mistakes are Beautiful
Process not Product
Creativity with Slowness
Making is the reward
“Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
It is a beauty of things modest and humble.
It is a beauty of things unconventional.”
“The idea of wabi-sabi speaks of a readiness to accept things as they are. This is contrary to Western ideals that emphasize progress and growth as necessary components to daily living. Wabi-sabi’s fundamental nature is about process, not final product, about decay and aging, not growth. This concept requires the art of “slowness”, a willingness to concentrate on the things that are often overlooked, the imperfections and the marks recording the passing of time.”
“Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect.”
“Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.”
Do some more research on Wabi Sabi, and see what you can find. See what I have missed in my summation.
Now go and explore the concept for yourself and lets see what we can lean about Wabi Sabi and what we can capture and explore with our cameras.
Post your thoughts, discoveries and photographs…
We will discuss the photographs posted this week and the ideas from the forum on Friday in our weekly webinar. https://lensclub.discussion.community/post/ex65-wabi-sabi-10499666?pid=1311329705#post1311329705
Wabi Sabi, after being stimulated with this idea by Sally and Freeman at Hopewell, New Zealand.
This was the log that Freeman made me sit on for an hour before I was allowed to pick up my camera. Just moments before the above photograph. I was thinking about the beauty in things past their prime, as they wrought-ed and decayed.
Photographs and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2020
