1. What and when was the Enlightenment?
The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority. It is also known as the Age of Reason.The "Enlightenment" was not a single movement or school of thought, for these philosophies were often mutually contradictory or divergent. The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals, and a strong belief in rationality and science. Thus, there was still a considerable degree of similarity between competing philosophies. Some historians also include the late 17th century as part of the Enlightenment.Modernity, by contrast, is used to refer to the period after The Enlightenment; albeit generally emphasizing social conditions rather than specific philosophies.
2. Define the concept of the Sublime.
In aesthetics, the sublime is the quality of greatness or vast magnitude, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation.
3. How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?
In 18th century, landscape paintings where only seen in the background, and were ignored if a painting was just of a landscape, and religious paintings were the most important, during this time artists wanted to show every the beauty of the nature and It wasn't until the beginning of the 19th century that more landscape painting were being painted and also being accepted.The concept of the sublime came out of the enlightenment when it was in the 18th century when people began to think more of they way world was ruled through the rules of the government, rather then the rules of their religion.
4. Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work.
the sumptuous study of weather, time, color and light in his serial photographs of the Golden Gate, and On the Beach, an aerial perspective of human interaction and isolation. Recent projects mark departures from his work to date.
PDN readers voted Richard Misrach’s 2007 book On The Beach one of the most influential books of the decade in a survey conducted for our January 30th Visions of the Decade issue. Taken from hotel room windows in Hawaii over the course of three years from 2002–2005, Misrach’s large-format photographs of beach scenes were published by Aperture in a beautiful oversize book.
“I was drawn to the fragility and grace of the human figure in the landscape,” Misrach wrote of the series. “My thinking about this work was influenced by the events of 9/11, particularly by the images of individuals and couples falling from the World Trade Towers, as well as by the 1950s Cold War novel and film, On the Beach. Paradise has become an uneasy dwelling place; the sublime sea frames our vulnerability, the precarious nature of life itself.”
In one series, he has experimented with new advances in digital capture and printing, foregrounding the negative as an end in itself and digitally creating images with astonishing detail and color spectrum.
6. How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?
Misrach’s photography give a completely different feeling. Especially On the Beach , Both are great photographers .They make me feel so peaceful and silence.
