wabi sabi
By claudia luthi
29 January 2008
For those of you not familiar with the term, wabi sabi is a japanese concept that represents an over all aesthetic strongly related to zen buddhism. To sum up, it is the "beauty in all things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete". It is the beauty in humble and simple things. Wabi sabi is in the changing, the fleeting and the decaying. It is in the asymmetric of hand made objects. It is in the patina and rust and erosion of age, in the withered petals of a flower. It is inherent to all organic materials and to every "lived" object. Further, wabi sabi also refers to the solitude and melancholy of remote places, translated as interior as well as exterior landscape.
Photography is a wonderful means to express wabi sabi. In japanese photography abound the examples. It is almost as though every japanese photographer has been bitten by the wabi sabi bug.
The photos of this essay are not so much a conscious exercise, as a support to transmit my own wabi sabi feeling.
More Photo Essays
More stories by claudia luthi
