“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”
― Eden Phillpotts
We all know everything relies on perception, is subjective, is relative… and so on. It’s been drilled into us that things change depending on viewpoint. We’re told we shouldn’t feel insecure just because we weren’t born to be the Einsteins or the Gandhis or the Jenners of our generation. That fifteen year old girl is told she shouldn’t regard Victoria’s Secret models as ‘perfect’ and that she should love herself. That forty-six year old businessman is told he doesn’t need to get on Forbes list or to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company to confirm his value in the world.
Everywhere, we've been creating a system of belief to shun all ideas of idealistic perfection and success. The focus has been to look at what we have, and to be content. What this system has created is a league of critics ready to look down upon all instances of near-perfection. They’ll point out airbrushed photos of models, enhanced photos of landscapes and any other perceived inconsistencies which catch their eye. It is now common to say that for anything and everything there doesn’t exist a ne plus ultra. This line of thought needs to come to an end. We have established that everything relies on perception, is subjective, is relative and so on. What we need to realise is that perfection does exist… the only discrepancy across our opinions is what our version of perfection is.
Consider these two photographs. They are of The Rhine (German: Rhein) – the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe.
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| River Rhine (Source: wikimedia /Gouwenaar) |
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| Rhein II - Andreas Gursky |
The photos look markedly different, but what really separates them? Well, technically, around 4.3 million US dollars separates them. The second photograph, Rhein II, is the second most expensive photograph in the world, made by German visual artist Andreas Gursky in 1999. The first is a tourist’s.
The photograph of The Rhine was digitally altered by Gursky, removing objects and people until it was completely minimalistic. Gursky explained: "It says a lot using the most minimal means … for me it is an allegorical picture about the meaning of life and how things are." You may read that as complete BS – it’s just a nice looking photograph that got some attention. Christie’s New York, a multinational arts business and auction house, describes it "a dramatic and profound reflection on human existence and our relationship to nature on the cusp of the 21st century.” Once again – BS? You decide.
The importance of you deciding shouldn’t go unnoticed. The worth of art (as with anything around us) depends on the value we imbue upon it. In my opinion, no work of art is supremely useless. Of course, there are pieces which are ineffective (in this context, I use ‘ineffective’ to mean the work of art does not elicit any profound emotion or response in anyone at all), and these are less valuable. Modern art has been a popular target for being ‘useless’ with its absurdly simple concepts and techniques. Seeing a modern piece of art you usually think “Oh, I could have done that”. However, it’s important to try to respond to your own self, “But I didn’t. So someone’s provided something new to the world and I guess that’s valuable in its own right.”
Artists reflect themselves in anything they create, whether it is conscious or unconscious. If that reflection elicits strong emotion in others, it is valuable. If that reflection is of a key figure, it is valuable. (Take Picasso’s handwritten notes of trivial messages like “I’m in the restaurant” as an example, each garnering an estimated price of around 1500 US dollars.)
Coming back to Rhein II, Gursky said "Paradoxically, this view of the Rhine cannot be obtained in situ, a fictitious construction was required to provide an accurate image of a modern river." What is interesting here is that his view is that an accurate image of a modern river needs to be formed through unnatural alteration. There is one important thing to focus on here. The image is Gursky’s idea of accuracy, not anyone else’s. Gursky reflects his views in his work. Whether you agree with it or not – it is there. He has created his own version of perfection, and he finds beauty in it, as does (presumably) the man who paid 4.3 million dollars for it.
What am I getting at here? The first photo is authentic, unaltered and realistic. The second photo is unnatural, altered and idealistic. The second photo, arguably, looks better. Now imagine if it was not two photos of a river I used, but two photos of a model. One altered through Photoshop and one unaltered. Our noble minds would automatically defend the moralistic view that the unaltered model is more real, more beautiful and more representative. But when we focus like this, on what is real, then we aren’t appreciating the versions of perfection we as humans have created.
Of course, the media has done an effective job in brainwashing people into believing they need to look a certain way, which has led to a dreadful era of body image issues amongst practically every single person… but this has happened because people have believed they need to be perfect. No one needs to be perfect. We all need to appreciate versions of perfection.
The Rhein II may be fake but it is visually appealing. It is someone’s version of perfection. I admire it. I will not look for images like the Rhein II in real life nor will I be desensitised to natural wonder because of it. It exists, and I am no person to determine its actual worth.
Perfection is beautiful because it sounds so absolute but is so variable. My version of perfection is not yours. Your version of perfection is not mine. Let’s stop belittling everything which isn’t ‘real’ – it’s a mindless pursuit. We need to see the value in things a little bit more, whether it’s an altered photograph, a Photoshopped model or anything else as such.
Everything reflects something, and when everything reflects something there comes a point at which a reflection will reflect something meaningful, and when something has a meaning it has worth… for once, let’s actually begin to appreciate that worth.
