"Green
is beautiful. Because every time I like something, I'm told it's green. Grass
is green, trees, leaves, nature too... I like to dress in Green" (Extract
from 'Blind')
A few
weeks ago, while browsing in the Whitechapel book shop, I came across one of
Sophie Calle's many fantastic collections of work exhibited in a coffee table
book, entitled 'Blind' that she collaborated in 1986. Although I wasn't
fortunate enough to see 'Blind' in an exhibition, The publication was enough to
completely en-captivate me into trance of sheer beauty and admiration for such
an incredible group of inspirational people as well as further admiration for
one of the most innovative and interesting photographers of my time; Sophie
Calle.
Sophie
Calle exhibited 3 different types of people who contracted their condition;
people visually impaired from birth, people that lost their sight over a
gradual process and people who became blind in a short period of time. The book
consists off series of portrait photographs with a narrated description aside
each one accompanied with a further picture of what they defined as beautiful.
Their
responses to what their take on ‘beauty’ was, consisted of incredibly
intricately detailed and touching responses and in addition to Sophie Calle’s
powerful photography, it was enough to completely blow me away, and further
question my own take on what beauty was.
I am not
one to constantly conjure moralistic values from frequent occurrences in life,
but Sophie Calle’s exhibition of ‘Blind’, enforced me to further support the
well know statement that ‘Beauty’ is stronger ‘within’ rather then things that
may appear to be ‘visually beautiful’. I am by no means undermining the
existence of visual beauty however ‘Blind’ just distinguishes the fact that
beauty can exist in all aspects of life; beyond our conceptions. Beauty is only
a perception that can be seen in so many different perspectives.
"I
saw my son in a dream. He was 10 years old. He was in pagamas. He looked at me
and smiled. He walked towards me. I thought it was very beautiful."
(Extract from 'Blind')
Here are
a few other interesting articles that also discuss Sophie Calles exhibition
'Blind'
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