NZ Visual Diary - entry 423

the artistry of time and light

The beauty in this photograph, if one concedes that beauty lies within it, is not inherent in the objects scattered across the alley way. By most aesthetic conventions, these elements of infrastructure are prosaic, perhaps curious, but hardly the stuff of artistic celebration. I suspect few stop, as I did, to admire the subtle wonder I found here.

Time and light, the painters of obstinate beauty, have left their impress upon the surfaces within the alley.

Like the Renaissance artists who employed chiaroscuroto to create depth, focus and dramatic tension in their paintings, time has applied soot and grime to this urban canvass and presented a possibility that utilitarian pipe, vent and chimney might be seen as evocative visual artefact.

Light reveals what time has set in motion. Light creates reflective sheen, establishing a dynamic tension between revelatory illumination and impenetrable mystery, the light and dark contrasts of chiaroscuro.

Time and light have imbued this alley with a subtle and quiet beauty, tempered by time of day and condition of its many surfaces. The allure is both transitory and contingent upon a willingness to embrace wonderment. I suspect that most pedestrians, who might otherwise have the capacity to stop and gaze in awe, will move on, if stop at all.

But for those of us who explore urban landscape with a yearning for visual surprise, there are delights to be found, enjoyed and shared.