Faded, Frayed, and Still Beautiful

Lens-Artists Challenge #420 – Looking Back to #125 You Pick It!

“Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities:
nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”
— Richard R. Powell, Wabi Sabi Simple

What a clever challenge Sofia has picked for the week! As she explained in her post, she went deeper into the choices and selected what Tina used in her post back then: Wabi-sabi. You should look both at Sofia’s and Tina’s posts to see their examples.

If you are not familiar with wabi-sabi, it is a Japanese concept that focuses on finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. In photography, you can explore several options through the wabi-sabi principle. For example, you can photograph leaves with edges or sections eaten by insects, dried flowers, weathered wood, lichen, ruins and rust, and many other subjects. In my response, I’ll focus on four stages exhibiting wabi-sabi.

Changing

One morning in mid-October, while sitting on the backyard patio, I noticed the Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia) leaves slowly beginning to turn. This one caught my eye. Half green and half red, orange, and yellow, it holds summer and fall at the same time, a change that is still slowly arriving here in Texas. An insect left a hole on the green side. A perfect leaf would be pretty; this one tells a story.

Worn but Still Living

A fresh Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) has deep black forewings with a blue-green sheen. On this one, the forewings have faded to a dusty brown, the edges are slightly frayed, and the hindwings have lost some of their shine. That’s what happens as a butterfly ages and its wing scales wear off. Yet there it was, still feeding. Worn, but still living.

What Remains

Just over a week ago, while volunteering for the weekly Fauna Survey Project at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, I came across a field of Leavenworth’s Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii). You may remember its vibrant green and purple from some of my previous posts. Now the color was gone, leaving only spines and structure in warm tan tones, and somehow it was just as beautiful.

Returning to the Earth

Here, nature is taking something back. Saplings grow up around this rusted car, and grass fills the wheel wells. The flaking paint reveals layers of rust, teal patina, and old cream. I photographed it a couple of weeks ago during a mountain bike ride at Katy Crossing, near San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, Texas. Fittingly, sabi sounds like the Japanese word for rust, though the two are written differently. The aesthetic term describes the beauty that comes with age and wear, and this old car has plenty of both.

Put together, these four images follow a single cycle: a leaf beginning to turn, a butterfly worn but still feeding, a flower reduced to its bare structure, and a car slowly returning to the earth. None of them is perfect, finished, or permanent, and that is exactly where their beauty lies. Wabi-sabi reminds me to slow down for the faded, the frayed, and the forgotten, because they often have more to say than a flawless subject. And like the Apache Plume seeds waiting for the wind, every ending carries the beginning of something new.

John’s challenge last week brought wonderful displays of landmarks and monuments. Some were personal memories, and they were all touching, informative, and beautiful. I hope you will join Sofia’s challenge, too. Don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag in your posts so people can find your wonderful challenge entries.

Next week, Patti will feature a new challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in then to find out more about the challenge. Please see this page for more information about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history. If you don’t want to miss any future challenges, please consider subscribing to the team members’ websites. Here they are:

• Tina of Travels and Trifles.
• Patti of P.A. Moed.
• Ann-Christine of Leya.
• John of Journeys with Johnbo.
• Anne of Slow Shutter Speed.
• Sofia of Photographias.
• Egídio of Through Brazilian Eyes.
• Ritva of Ritva Sillanmäki Photography.
• Beth of Wandering Dawgs.

That is the story behind the shots. For more like this, enjoy these related stories: Apache Plume, Fall Foliage, Leavenworth’s Eryngo, Lens-Artists, Pipevine swallowtail, Teravista, Texas, Wildflowers, and Wildlife. Until the next shoot, keep chasing the light and the wonders it reveals.

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Sources

• Richard R. Powell, Wabi Sabi Simple (2004)