This post on Mono No Aware in traditional Japanese Zen aesthetics picks up on this previous post about wabi sabi and my large format photography. This bushland photography in Waitpinga bushland on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia was a little project during 2002 that was done on the early morning poodlewalks with Kayla.
That earlier post highlighted how Wabi and sabi emphasise contentment and the acceptance of imperfection as a result of the ravages of time. Mono No Aware, in contrast, refers to awareness and acceptance of the ephemeral of life. The “pathos” (aware) of “things” (mono), derives from their transience. The underlying idea is transience and impermanence in life. It is an acceptance of perishability as opposed to the traditional preference for permanence.
The most frequently cited example of mono no aware in contemporary Japan is the traditional love of cherry blossoms of the Japanese cherry trees. These are intrinsically no more beautiful than those of, say, the pear or the apple tree: they are more highly valued because of their transience, since they usually begin to fall within a week of their first appearing.
The fleeting moment in the bushland was the early morning light:
The light was ephemeral: it lasted on this branch of the pink gum for a minute or so before disappearing. I knew the time it happened in the early morning during the early winter months and I would have the 5x4 Linhof Technika IV set up on its tripod waiting. Often I would have the camera set up but the clouds would drift at the crucial moment and there was no light on the branch.
