Creativity Exercise | Beautiful Ugly

This month was an exercise I was really excited about, but then I just couldn’t seem to make it happen! I had these grand visions of finding something truly ugly but that was somehow lit with gorgeous light. But everything I considered came up woefully short, until I realized that what I was judging my ideas by is a photo I’d taken last winter of a brown, dead leaf from a thorny rose stem that had formed an icicle, and the light around it was just glorious. It looked to me like it was lit from within! I don’t think anyone else who looks at this sees the beauty that I do, but this is one of my favorite photos, for some reason. I think this image epitomizes my goal in my photography, my style. I feel gratified when I manage to take the normal, the mundane, and make it beautiful. To elevate what is already gorgeous to the next level, of course, but even better is to make the normal, extraordinary. I yearn to find and preserve beauty through my lens. I know life can be difficult, and I don’t mean to diminish that or pretend that hardship doesn’t exist, but I don’t want to immortalize the sadness, to give it a greater voice or permanence. With my photography, I can see—and preserve—the world through rose-colored glasses, and that’s just how I want it to be!

Now please continue around our little circle to see what Jodi came up with for Beautiful Ugly; I have no doubt it will be amazing!