Illumination object
Phenomenon in itself
Stripped of its referent
An image as an visual metaphor for a reality that cannot be fully objectified or conceptually contained.
“The Encompassing is that which is beyond all particular objects, that which manifests itself in all objects and yet is not exhausted by them.” – John Dewey
Car as an object
Dissolves into
Manifold of sensations
A moment of sensation that bypasses conceptual understanding, offering itself directly to the body and mind.
“Art does not render the visible, but renders visible.” – Paul Klee
Physical phenomena
As distinct from
Psychical phenomena
Our perception of the hood latch-spring mechanism, the blurred background, and the shimmering bokeh circles is not merely a passive reception of sensory data, but an active, directed engagement with these elements.
“The aesthetic object is not a thing but a meaning.” – Mikel Dufrenne
Human intention
Yielding nature
Material world
The aesthetic experience arises from the dynamic interaction between a living being and its environment.
“The aesthetic is no intruder in experience but the clarified and intensified development of traits that belong to every normally complete experience.” – John Dewey
Material vestiges
Embedded form
Silent narrative
The wheel is not simply an object for us, but something that is, independent of our gaze, bearing the weight of its own history and potentiality.
“The very relationship with the other is the relationship with the future.” – Emmanuel Levinas
Fractured mosaic
Brutal beauty
Momentarily arrested
The shimmering refractions within the cracks dance like fleeting thoughts, reflecting a world splintered into a thousand perspectives.
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Aesthetic quality
Functional design
Corporate branding
The stark contrast between the bright red cab and the muted white of the cargo container immediately strikes the eye.
“To see something as art requires something the eye cannot decry—an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” – Arthur Danto
Conquer distance
Permanence change
Ephemeral dance
The true subject of photography, and perhaps of all art, is not the object itself, but the human experience, the ever-evolving dialogue between the self and the world.
“One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” – Minor White
Meticulously crafted
Shadow of power
Domestic order
Behold! A motorcycle, but not of steel and thunder, not a roaring beast of the asphalt, but a wicker simulacrum, a ghostly echo of speed and power rendered in the frail, woven reeds of domesticity.
“Art is the true form of metaphysics.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Something that does
What it’s supposed to do
Plain and simple
We’re here to work, we’re here to build, we’re here to move forward.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford