The wikipedia Definition
The sublime in literature refers to the use of language and description that excites thoughts and emotions beyond ordinary experience. Though often associated with grandeur, the sublime may also refer to the grotesque or other extraordinary experiences that "take[s] us beyond ourselves.”
The literary concept of the sublime emerged in the seventeenth century from its use in alchemy and became important in the eighteenth century. It is associated with the 1757 treatise by Edmund Burke, though it has earlier roots. The idea of the sublime was taken up by Immanuel Kant and the Romantic poets including, especially William Wordsworth.
The Sublime and Photography
Fernando Maselli
Maselli is an Argentian photographer who studies fine arts and later moved to Madrid to continue his studies. His work has won numerous awards including the SPD - Society of Publication Designers (New York), the W-CA Contemporary Landscape Photography Open (UK), the Youth Arts Award from the Complutense University (Spain), ITAÚ Fine Arts Award (Argentina). His work has been selected to participate in the Copenhagen Photo Festival (Denmark), NordArt 2014 (Germany), 13th Mostra Internacional Gas Natural Fenosa of Spain, the 15th China International Photographic Art Exhibition, and the International Biennial of Photography Fotonoviembre (Spain). Maselli has made exhibitions in art galleries and museums such as Luis Adelantado (Mexico), Mad is Mad (Madrid), at the CEART - Tomás y Valiente Art Center (Spain), the Alicante Institute of Culture Juan Gil Albert (Spain), MAC - Contemporary Art Museum Coruña (Spain), and his work has been in several art fairs such as OFF Art Fair Brussels, ZONA MACO (Mexico), ARCO (Spain) and ArtMadrid (Spain).
https://phmuseum.com/fernandomaselli#:~:text=The%20main%20focus%20of%20his,beauty%20of%20the%20rugged%20landscape.&text=The%20photographic%20work%20of%20Fernando,and%20concept%20as%20core%20values.
"I seek to recreate an imaginary landscape, almost perfect, where the repetition and accumulation of the elements creates in the viewer a disturbing sensation." Argentinian photographer, Fernando Maselli explores the aesthetic status of the sublime.
Fernando Maselli takes about his project “Artificial Infinite” to the Photographic Museum of Humanity.
https://phmuseum.com/news/reimagining-the-sublime-landscape
Through the concept of the sublime, Argentine photographer Fernando Maselli explores the qualities of immensity, infinity, emptiness, and loneliness. In the vastness of large mountains around the world, he questions the awareness and weakness of our presence in the universe.
Maselli is clearly influenced by the notions of philosophical thinkers, and continues to question the pragmatic thoughts of Edmund Burke, who defined what he considered to be sublime in his book, A Philosophical Enquiry Into The Origin Of Our Ideas Of The Sublime And Beautiful. Artificial Infinite reflects upon one’s fragility through a collection of constructed images.
What drew you to work on the topic of the sublime through images of mountains?
The landscape has always been present in my work from the beginning, but I began to work more on this topic in my previous project called Hierophanies. Some of the locations that I had to capture for this project took me to the mountains where I discovered my interest in these landscapes and everything that involves the ascent of a mountain, with its physical and psychic preparation. Then I began to document the mountain landscape in art, looking at its different representations throughout history - this led me to the concept of the sublime, which is an aesthetic category described as a controlled fear that draws the soul. It expresses, ultimately, feelings of pain, distress or fear, that join with the awareness of our smallness and weakness in front of the immensity and the chaos.
In this sense, my project Artificial Infinite deals with steep mountain ranges where semi-darkness, profusion, depth and height come together as the visual achievement of what we may call “the terrifying sublime” - an idea that causes a vortex that disrupts the illusion of security of our everyday regulated and orderly existence. The works included in this series are not constituted by shots taken directly from reality, but instead, they offer landscapes that were recreated through a complex photographic staging, where I highlight, through different techniques such as, fragmentation, repetition, proliferation and superposition, the magnificence of the mountain.
When you embark on your hikes to photograph the mountains, how long do you spend there? Do you go back to the same location? Did you acquire any special training in order to access to these locations?
When I embarked on this project, I found it important to experience the feeling of the sublime in all its greatness: the man alone in front of nature. So I decided that I had to do these expeditions by myself. Build shelters on the peaks, hike and feel the risk. To do this, I had to take mountaineering courses and train for several months to get to these high mountains - I felt that it was important to work on the concept of the sublime in a virgin and difficult to access landscape. During these trips, I spent several days in the mountain sheltering, with the idea of portraying the same massive mountainous from all angles and at different times of the day, and then reassemble all those pieces in these imaginary compositions that you see
Maselli’s work is like no other that I have seen before. It is also supported with a lot of deep thought and motive towards how he wants to make the viewer feel which inspires me to do the same with my work. The constructed images take you into a world which you feel amazed by, almost taking you out of the physical world that we know and into a new one. The black and white textures of the photographs disconnect you with the colours we are used to seeing in the mountains which reinforce the sublime that he is creating in his photographs. I feel as if I could be looking at photographs of a newfound planet and not the European mountain ranges which I am familiar with.
Maselli’s photographic inquiry defines the power that a photographer can have to control the way they make their viewer feel. By changing a perspective that they think they are used to seeing and creating a new world that feels like it is needed to be explored.
This technique is one that is similar to the way in which I am photographing my project. I want to make my viewer feel as if there is an inner world to explore, one that is built around thought and peace. A world that is accessible to everyone and is achievable wherever you are. I want my photographs to prompt these ideas so people can start a conversation with themselves about the silence that they are able to find. To achieve this I am making simple and abstract landscapes, maybe not photographs that people are used to seeing. Photographs that zone into a silent moment where I find peace in the landscape that I immerse myself in.