Photo Essay: Anthony Teasdale and Holly Warren

The Everyday Aesthetic: metal and rusted metal

Anthony Teasdale (41795997) and Holly Warren (42820944)

Metals, and more specifically rusted metals, exemplify the everyday aesthetic highlighted by media academics such as Yuriko Saito (2007), Thomas Leddy (2012) and Susan Murray (2008).

Murray (2008) delves into the modern photographic movement that seeks to illuminate the inherent beauty in the mundane details of daily life, and notes that one popular subject for photo sharers is decay and alienation in the urban and industrial landscape.

Cockatoo Island provided a plethora of rusted objects, and from a huge array of photographs, the chosen twenty-four aimed to both carry the theme and to demonstrate the broad possibilities of the theme, with each frame depicting a different rusted metal article. Indeed, our exercise in photo selection mirrored the compilation and comparison process that Murray (2008, p 140) observes is captivating photo sharers in themed photo groups.

There were some ordering considerations that came into play. Pictures featuring a circular subject, for example bolts, were separated from one another, to increase the sense of diversity of rusted metals.

The trend taken to while editing the pictures was one that sought to accentuate warmth. After experimentation, it became clear that enhancing the inherent warm colours of rust emphasised the already striking visuals of the subject. This was achieved primarily through adjusting the saturation level, and in some instances, by modifying the temperature of pictures. The contrast, definition and sharpness were also altered in an effort to emphasise the visual disparity between the object itself and its oxidation.

The video intends to deliver notions of simplicity and melancholy. The pictures of things once significant for human use, now rusted and idle convey the notion of dereliction and alienation. Despite their corrosion, or indeed because of their corrosion, these ordinary objects have an allure that the everyday aesthetic celebrates. The style of the slideshow was designed to harmonise with the theme of alienated but beautiful objects, using minimal visual effects and opting for a moderated panning across the photos. The choice of chilled ambient music infused with a lugubrious air by Italian instrumental artists Blukaos accords with the tone of the slideshow.

The fifth photo from the end of the slideshow can be taken to embody the everyday aesthetic. This approach to photography, because it pays attention to seemingly ordinary things in the day-to-day world, can appreciate the beauty in a large rusted box with a small hole in it. Peering through that small hole, three tiny holes on the other side of the box can be seen, the sun’s rays illuminating them. If one thinks to peer through the hole in a corroded old box, it can be seen as the visually striking thing that it truly is. As Murray (2008) notes, the everyday aesthetic is one where individuals possessing any degree of photographic experience and skill, are encouraged to find the beauty in the everyday.

Bibliography

Murray, S (2008) Digital Images, Photo-Sharing and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics, Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp 147-163.

Mandoki, K 2007, Everyday Aesthetics: Prosaics, the Play of Culture and Social Identities, Ashgate Publishing Company, Aldershot United Kingdom.

Leddy, T 2012, The Extraordinary in the Ordinary: The Aesthetics of Everyday Life, Broadview Press, Ontario.

Saito, Y 2007, Everyday Aesthetics, Oxford University Press, Oxford.