Exploring Aesthetics: Beauty without Utility in Harvey’s Fine Art Photography

Abstract

The paper delves into aesthetic beauty in photographs of Cig Harvey (b. 1973, England). Using Immanuel Kant’s theory of “Aesthetics”, this paper will explore how beauty without utility is expressed through order, harmony, and balance in Harvey’s photographs. For Kant, order, harmony, and balance are the keys to the beautiful and what he called the “sublime.” And what Kant’s theory “disinterested pleasure” reveals is that there is nothing utilitarian about beauty – no useful purpose to the piece we are enjoying other than its beauty. The piece of art should be judged apart from any practical function, which echoes the principle “art for art sake”. This paper focuses on three pieces of Harvey’s photographs Frozen Apples, Rockport, Maine, 2018 (see Figure 1), Exit, Self-portrait, San Francisco, California, 2005 (see Figure 2) and Scout & the Jacks, 2016 (see Figure 3). Through these three photographs this paper discusses how Harvey works as a fine art photographer to pursue true beauty, leaving the viewers with a feeling for the sublime.