ABOUT ME
Oyama Maz
Commercial Photography Student
Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography
WHAT IS AESTHETICS?
AESTHETICS IS AN AREA OF PHILOSOPHY
CONCERNED WITH ART AND BEAUTY
Aesthetics covers both natural and artificial sources of aesthetic experience and judgment. It considers what happens in our minds when we engage with aesthetic objects or
environments such as in viewing visual art, listening to music, reading poetry, experiencing a play, exploring nature, and so on. The philosophy of art specifically studies how artists imagine, create, and perform works of art, as well as how people use, enjoy, and criticise their art. It deals with how one feels about art in general, why they like some works of art and not others, and how art can affect our moods or even our beliefs (Munro, 1986)
Both aesthetics generally and philosophy of art especially ask questions like "what is art?",
"what is a work of art?", and "what makes good art?".
For David Hume, the delicacy of taste is not merely "the ability to detect all the ingredients in a composition", but also our sensitivity "to pains as well as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind.”
1. Taste
An individual's personal and cultural patterns of choice and preference. Taste is drawing
distinctions between things such as styles, manners, consumer goods and works of art and resulting to these. Social inquiry of taste is about the human ability to judge what is beautiful, good and proper.
2. Aesthetics
Philosophical notion of beauty
CALL MY HOME PLANET is a portrait series that explores the idea of surrealist aesthetics.
The series is a portfolio submission for PAP Magazine, an Italian contemporary publication. The theme of the series is Eternal love. I decided to use the color purple because in movies aliens are portrayed as being purple.
Purple is the color of imagination and spirituality, inspiring high ideals. It can be creative and individual or immature and impractical. It is also an introspective tone, allowing us to connect with our deeper thoughts.
People drawn to purple are usually compassionate, understanding, and supportive, thinking of others before themselves. They will often have a peaceful and tranquil quality, with quiet dignity about them.
Purple implies wealth, even royalty, as well as quality, fantasy, and creativity. This tone heightens people’s sense of beauty and their reaction to more creative ideas. (London Image Institute, 2020)
URBAN PANTSULA is a portrait series that explores the aesthetics of township youth living in the city. Urban Pantsula is part of an ongoing series titled FRAMES + FRIENDS + PLACES.
The definition and representation of the Pantsula subculture has evolved over the decades since its emergence. The subculture emerged in the 1950s and AmaPantsula were considered well-dressed “gangsters” who had their own way of communicating.
Before 1976, the majority of AmaPantsula ranged from the ages of 30 upwards. However, the political shifts that occurred in the 1970s influenced changes in the subculture in terms of age and behaviour. The youth of the 1970s faced socio-economic issues, that still resound in South Africa today, and becoming a Pantsula was one way of challenging authority and oppression at home. Following the Soweto uprising of 1976, the lifestyle and style of AmaPantsula became more popular. (Unlabelled,2019)
SOULS DO NOT MEET BY ACCIDENT is a series that explores the importance of sisterhood.
A Sisterhood is defined as the state of being a sister and being involved with a strong community who are bound together by shared experiences or interests. To each person, Sisterhood may mean something different, however, as a whole, it encapsulates an unconditional alliance between like-minded individuals who empower and lift one another. (The sisterhood journey, 2018)
SHE DANCED WHERE OTHERS WALKED is a series about fun and energy.
IT’S THE CONNECTION WE CAN’T EXPLAIN
