For some people beauty is found in perfection, but what is perfection? The trouble with trying to find beauty in perfection is that we are never really convinced about perfection….there’s always something just not quite right, isn’t there? And, actually, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so perfection is not something everyone can agree on.
In Japanese culture, one of the many aspects of a concept called “wabi sabi” is finding beauty in imperfection. I think this photo is a good example of that. It caught my eye because I found it beautiful and when I look at it again, now, I find the whole image beautiful.
It’s hard to just put your finger on what makes such an image beautiful. There’s a similar, though different, concept in the West as “shabby chic” – and there is no doubt that when I travel around France, Italy and Spain, I find lots of examples of old, often neglected buildings which have a real charm to them. But I can also walk in areas of urban neglect where I find it hard to see any beauty at all. Were we better at building beauty in the past?
What do you think? Do you find beauty in “wabi sabi”?
Heroes Not Zombies 