Romanticism/Sublime:

Rut Blees Luxemburg’s work has a close relationship to the sublime and romanticism, with her aesthetic and aim being towards this genre and style behind the context of the images.

The sublime is a view on the world in which there is an appreciation for beauty and imagination within nature especially, and falls under the category of romanticism. Another view on it is a heightened awareness in the world. It was Edmund Burk who was a key ingredient in the movement of the subject of the sublime, as he wrote a philosophical book into the ideas of beauty and “the sublime”. His ideas and world view was very emotional and he believed in a lot of thinking from the heart as people would say, as there was not much logic involved, “For Burke, it is the passions (as represented in our imagination), not reason, which determines how and what we see, hear and feel in the world”.

A lot of this idea of the Sublime goes towards the senses on the body and mind, and how Burke believed that the feelings of terror and sadness (negative emotions) are much greater than the ones that will be pleasurable, and in that case these negative emotions are more recognised in a way where you learn and strive from. But he continues to talk about through living a life of happiness, isn’t possible without the possibility in it ending in terror.

Rut Blees Luxemburg Link to the sublime:

Susanne Kippenberger talks about Blees’ work by saying, “Rut Blees Luxemburg finds beauty in the most mundane corners of the urban landscape”. which has a close relationship to the idea of the sublime and finding beauty in areas which seem unsalvageable, and places which you would never look at in the way you might when looking at her images.

Other sources say in an interview that Blees doesn’t use editing software, rather just a sheet of paper with her prints on and a window with light, which shows how less artificial her work is, without the need of software she can create truly amazing pictures by also using exposures of up to 10 minutes. Where she claims she stumbles across these areas rather than looking for them, and works on one area for an image for hours, until she is happy with the results.

My View/Analysis:

I like Blees’ work because of her simplicity with the way she chooses what to image, and how the simplest and most unpleasant areas can become eye catching images through her skills. Furthermore, I like the use of shapes along with lines in her images and how depth is very visible within her images, for example in this image is is simple with a lot of lines and clear subject in the middle of the composition, whilst the background is of a landscape skyline. But also images like this:

which have a lot more shapes but specific subjects to think about within the subject, like the chair and table within the main subject of the container. The images she creates, show a sense of mystery and confusion, which is appealing non the less, but also the lighting used is very aggressive and reflective because of the wetness on the floor, which creates more of a contrasted image between light and dark. In my opinion Blees’ work is a lot harder than most photographers because although having a large city to be able to image, she makes it harder by taking these images during the night, as there is less light, and less things happening during the night, which you might not be used to in comparison to the day. Not only that but her use of up to 10 minute exposures show commitment to her images, as she spends a lot of time capturing only a phew images she chooses from at the end of her photoshoots.