Mono no aware: Photography by Leigh Mitchell
Fall is a season of contrasts. The days begin with a chill, foretelling the coming winter, then closing with an afternoon of summer heat. We sweater-up in the morning to then shed a layer or two by lunch. We notice the trees are still green, but that green is dull, faded, browning on the edges, ready for winter rest. Mitchell’s photographs celebrate this seasonal contrast, the natural cycles of birth and death, and remind us of the fragility of these cycles.
Her title, Mono no aware is a Japanese phrase meaning “beauty tinged with sadness.” Mitchell states, “More specifically it refers to the bittersweet awareness that all existence is ephemeral, and every moment of life is short lived.” Nature’s ephemeral existence is not only the seasonal cycle but also the human sourced destruction of the natural cycle. Mitchell’s images of fall as beauty tinged with sadness conjure feelings … “of impending loss”…“feelings of vulnerability, loss, loneliness, precariousness and foreboding.” She elaborates, “Another translation for ‘mono no aware’ is ‘a sensitivity to things,’ or noticing, identifying with, and having appreciation for things. As a result of this sensitivity, a subtle ache accompanies the awareness that all things inevitably change form or come to an end. The transience of nature/of life/of reality makes it both haunting and precious.”
Mitchell often employed a Holga camera to record some of her landscapes. The Holga, with limited control and range is plagued with imprecise outcomes not unlike humans attempts of dominion over the natural world with poor understanding of the long-range outcomes of those interventions. Mitchell applies the same methodical, labor-intensive production in making digital ink jet prints from digital cameras as she does silver-gelatin prints from the Holga. By eliminating color, she emphasizes the haunting beauty of these disappearing landscapes ravaged by society’s progress.
Leigh Mitchell is an artist/educator. She holds a Master’s Degree in Studio Art from Western Carolina University. Her work has been exhibited at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO; the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY; The Asheville Art Museum; and most recently, in Greenville, SC at The SE Center for Photography, and at the Greenville Center for Creative Arts. Visit www.leighkendramitchell.com for more information. Mono no aware is a welcome to and introduction of Mitchell, as a newly installed full-time photography instructor, in Greenville Technical College’s Department of Visual Art.
