Hi there! And first of all, I apologize for a long delay on my posts - I was simply too busy last year and it was impossible to update anything here in my Editor's blog, but I will try to do better this time:) And my today's topic is art for regular people - the ones, who are observing the beauty every single day in the cities and elsewhere and will try to speak about the importance of it from my personal perspective. Pretty banal, right? But to me it is a very much common area and a lot of times I am thinking about it in my head, or while going to some photography exhibition or while just sitting in the train and looking outside the window, observing passengers or analysing women in the shops, whose outfit has caught my eye. We all see and interact with a lot of things through each day and it would be silly not to realize that it all shapes our culture, affects our mood, brings us inspiration etc. Therefore I would like to start my discussion with sharing a great article by Accent Art & Frame posted in 2016, which is still valid today and which pretty much sums it up, why we need art in our daily lives and how big of an impact it has on us as a human race.
Some people think that art is something that is being placed in museums behind security glass windows, however art is much wider than that. Art is simply everywhere we go in the urban areas and outside of it, surrounding us during our free time and being present in our homes. Art can be found in fresh colourful graffitis, in those bus stop commercials/ads, it is a specific music in the restaurants and boutiques, surrounding us anywhere we are heading to, and it makes our lives more pleasant and sometimes very beautiful. And people knowingly are addicted to comfort and beautiful things, which makes it reasonable to bring them joy through the short fraction of their time they spend consuming and buying goods for their homes or themselves. One of my favourite fields aside my main interest, photography, for a very long time was interior styling and design. In 2012-2013 I studied interior styling, because I thought that I could apply my vision on something new and it felt amazing to put a new look on a place that needed an update and stylist's eye to become more cozy or to get sold quick. I never saw myself creating those beautiful buildings as an architect, yet I was always very excited about decorating them and using my stylist skills for such work, where the same principles apply - using and mixing colours, textures and trying to send the right message to the viewer.
Since we just passed that almost half-year long pre-Christmas season, which usually starts to fill the city streets in every corner with all kinds of light decorations and holiday attributes already in October (which some people find very annoying, haha:), calling us all to join the madness while shopping for Christmas and New Year gifts all till the last minute, it is a great example of how we can all unite for a period of time by city brought art, and I can say that I haven't seen a grumpy face during any of those days I was walking outside, because every city I was going to this winter was filled with lights and this magic and yearning for its powerful impact on the brighter future people with almost childish hope, who were truly happy to enjoy spending time with their loved ones and families, kids, and we all really needed that.
As a visual person I always take a moment to look inside those city shop windows no matter the brand, constantly being amazed by talented work of visual merchandisers and taking pictures of it to remember them. To me that is art. It may be a regular fashion clothes selling store or a fancy, more expensive boutique, but the placement of goods can be so inspiring in both of them, that I can't help but stare and enjoy it, while others are walking by, because it is not in their interest and/or they don't treat it as an artistic form, but pure advertising of things they may need or want. In TV Series Ugly Betty her friend Christina's character once said, that "fashion is good for the soul". And if we used to flip through the fashion magazines and "feeding" ourselves with some luxury shown on the pages or with sensual photographs telling a story and making our minds float in our imagination driven world in search for better lives, or just like any graphic designer would get truly inspired by some typical "1000 most famous or beautiful logos" book, looking at visually talented execusion no matter its form will always be a great source of inspiration and I am very glad that we can sometimes find it casually just on our walk to work or back home.
Probably we will all agree, that these beautiful and inviting windows are roughly no more than just a creative tool to welcome us to spend our money - sometimes on unnecessary products, but this is the same in any field. As photographers we do sell our services and we also put them into nice packages, so our customers will find us and choose us based on our quality or positive associations we caused. And without selling economics would stop and we need it to survive. And I like that this type of "selling" is creative, visual and talented and pleasing to the eye, and it does not just attract clients suggesting them to buy more, but it is raising a level of perception and understanding of beauty and putting the standards much higher and it is certainly growing and developing our taste, which is a very important thing to note, if we think about it as our natural every day life "education" accessible on our own city streets. And even though we live in the times of overconsuming, and where brands should definitely take their responsibility over the fact that their production is causing major damages to our nature, and eco-friendly solutions are not just becoming a trend, but are necessary, if we want to continue on this Earth, I still firmly believe that this kind of advertising of products to people is reasonable and needed to create a consistent, modern or mixed with a lot of traditional elements, yet rich city view, where store windows with their art are making impact just as much as local cafes and restaurants, that all together are shaping the culture and originality of each place.
..And if I had to choose to either walk on the street, where I can put my eyes on something beautiful, creative and interesting, that will make my imagination do some work afterwards, or just walk through the industrial gray area, where everything looks depressing and just the same, I could go both ways, but I would still think how much more rich the last option would be, if it had some art being placed in it.
— Yours 💜, Veronica Lounge / Photographer & Editor of Lounge & Lifestyle
..And if I had to choose to either walk on the street, where I can put my eyes on something beautiful, creative and interesting, that will make my imagination do some work afterwards, or just walk through the industrial gray area, where everything looks depressing and just the same, I could go both ways, but I would still think how much more rich the last option would be, if it had some art being placed in it.
— Yours 💜, Veronica Lounge / Photographer & Editor of Lounge & Lifestyle
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