Ordinary BrassaÏ
Brassaï (pseudonym of Gyula Halász; 9 September 1899 – 8 July 1984) was a Hungarian–French photographer, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century.
![BRASSAI [gyula halasz] - Le ruisseau serpente -1932](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59de7afe8fd4d2d9babb60f5/1617176161951-SRCJCRHWOMVPU0M9HK12/b8289186a53f1792470e39fb1c438db3.jpg)
BRASSAI [gyula halasz] - Le ruisseau serpente -1932
WAYS TO SEE: The formative power of the ordinary
Going through life on autopilot, glossing over the ordinary while we speed ahead striving for constant escapism to define our lives is kinda depressing.
Yet that’s how we are wired to think.
Work hard. Play hard.
Work hard . So bloody hard that you reach burnout levels. Then pay for a holiday to escape your ordinary life. Come back. Feel sad about it. Go back to work “refreshed” and ready to float towards another burnout. All the while overlooking the staggering amount of beauty, inspiration and detail around us even in our ordinary everyday environments.
Travelling is good for the soul. Going to new places to see and experience new things is good for the soul.
Coming home and reconnecting with our ordinariness without bitterness is also good for the soul. How we connect and appreciate these moments in may ways defines who we are.
WAYS TO SEE: A RESPONSE TO JOHN BURROUGHS
Here’s a level-headed thought provoking response that I received from Alexander Hoyles:
“I think regardless of your status in relation to a place (be it tourist, local, employee, visitor, photographer) our brains are wired in such a way that we mostly take in only what we pay attention to, and the finer details only of that which we directly focus on - locals may see subtle difference between things that seems the same to outsiders, but outsiders can find points of interest in things which fade into the background for locals... The colour of streetlights in a city or municipal signage might be 'just how it is' and go unnoticed to a long time resident, but be a wonder to visitors. We often as photographers (especially those of us interested in the everyday and urban spaces) speak of liminality and the spaces between as though these are concrete features of a city/the urban environ globally, but in reality what is and isn't a liminal space has a lot to do with attention and consideration - to a person driving a daily commute, everything between home and work is simply 'The drive to work' and so all a non space, un/under examined - where as to those who walk that same route or live and work on it, it's is rich with detail. To the average museum visitor the exhibits are the focus and the building and spaces between display cases are ignored - however to a cleaner working in the building the spaces between are all that exist and the display cases contents ignored.”
Thank you Alexander for the insightful chat and inspiration to keep on reasoning with ourselves about what we capture and why we share.
Alexander had 2 accounts to follow on Instagram.
His portraits and still life work can found here https://www.instagram.com/alexander_hoyles/?hl=en
His street side observations can be found here https://www.instagram.com/reflected_repetition/?hl=en
His website: https://alexanderhoyles.com
YOUR THOUGHTS
We really value hearing your thoughts.
Ways To See: Resist Grind Culture
"SEEING...
is an intellectual aesthetic exercise which increases one's inalienable capital, riches that can be accumulated without cost, once acquired, cannot be lost or stolen.”
George Nelson
Highly recommended bit of reading:
Source: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/10/23/10-years-of-brain-pickings/
WHAT IF WE EASE OFF THE GLORIFICATION OF BEING BUSY?
What if we used that energy to tune into ourselves and surroundings rather than reducing life’s details into a kind of background condition visual muzak?
I think now more than ever before is a good time to move against the grind culture that capitalism promotes, and pull something back for ourselves. Putting it bluntly, Capitalism thrives on exploitation, greed and oppression. It’s built on a prejudiced (race and class) system that abuses the rights and needs of people to line the pockets of a few.
Our fast-paced lifestyles normalise that damaging kind of competitive grind culture. We pushing ourselves to the limit for the sake of being busy. We’ve reached a point where we feel anxious and uncomfortable when we are less busy. We grind ourselves to the point of burn-out and then we seek escape from it all.
Grind culture is damaging. Damages our health our relationships and our connection to nature.
I’d like to think that Super Ordinary life is a gentle resistance against this. We can go slower, we can rest, we can stop to “smell the roses” and appreciate the “little things”. We do not need to feel anxious, guilty or unproductive for slowing down enough to notice more of all the stuff we’ve been busy overlooking.
We have so much to gain from stepping away from grind culture.
Resources for further reading:
10 Learnings from 10 Years of Brain Pickings - a lot of which has to do with take time out of the grind. https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/10/23/10-years-of-brain-pickings/
The Nap Ministry examines the liberating power of naps as a form of resistance and reparation: https://thenapministry.wordpress.com
