Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that studies beauty and artistic taste. Aesthetic judgments are typically sensory and emotional. The philosophy of art is a sub-branch of aesthetics that focuses specifically on the nature of art. It explores the essence of art, its various forms, and the concepts and meanings associated with it. Generally, aesthetic judgments are about what one finds appealing or not, and artistic theories aim to understand and evaluate artistic creations.
Aesthetics is not merely about beauty; it also encompasses concepts like sublimity, ugliness, elegance, and taste. The appreciation of art involves contemplation, reflection, and the emotional and intellectual engagement one has with an artwork. These experiences are deeply personal and influenced by individual sensibilities, cultural backgrounds, and personal histories. We believe that aesthetic phenomena, like all sensory perceptions and actions, follow certain universal principles. The science of aesthetics, which seeks to understand these principles, has always been of interest to philosophers and art theorists.
Historically, artists in various artistic fields have always intuitively paid attention to aesthetic principles and strived to create works that exhibit aesthetic appeal. This pursuit of aesthetic excellence is evident across different art forms, including painting, sculpture, music, and literature. Even in seemingly technical fields like photography, aesthetic considerations are paramount. Establishing consistent aesthetic criteria for photography has been a challenging task, and many photographers initially approached photography with painting’s aesthetic standards in mind. This research aims to explore the relationship between photography and aesthetic theories, particularly in the context of the camera’s unique capabilities and the resulting visual experiences.
Abu Ali Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, often referred to as Ibn al-Haytham, was a prominent figure in the field of optics. He was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. This renowned Muslim scholar of Iranian descent was born in Basra in 354 AH (965 AD) and passed away in Cairo in 430 AH (1038 AD).
He has numerous theories and articles in the field of optics, and he is known as the founder of modern optics. From his perspective, beauty is perceived through the form of visible objects, which are composed of multiple meanings. According to him, this process of visual perception occurs when the eye perceives light and its various properties. However, for us, the perception of these visible meanings (which are initially received by the sense of sight through the perception of color and light) is completed by the imagination, which draws upon stored visual data and integrates it with apparent sensory information. This integration results in a mental image that corresponds to the perceived reality. One of the key aspects of this process is how these meanings are perceived by the sense of sight and then understood in the mind. He explains the quality of this perception and lists 22 factors that contribute to it, including 1. Light 2. Color 3. Distance 4. Position 5. Shape 6. Size 7. Arrangement 8. Connection 9. Separation 10. Texture 11. Movement 12. Stillness 13. Smoothness 14. Roughness 15. Transparency 16. Opacity 17. Shadow 18. Illumination 19. Similarity 20. Difference 21. Proportion 22. Harmony.
He delves into the description and interpretation of each of the mentioned factors and believes that these twenty-two factors sometimes act individually and sometimes in combination to evoke aesthetic feelings in the viewer.
Nasrollah Kasraian was born in 1943 in the city of Abadan, Iran. Over nearly fifty years of photography, he has published thirty books. Although his role in Iranian photography and his influence have always been significant, he has consistently focused on the people and their lives. Kasraian has always portrayed the lives of Iranians in his work. His life and photography have been dedicated to depicting the struggles and changes in the world. He has had a profound and lasting impact on contemporary Iranian photography and can be considered one of the most important figures in shaping the national identity of modern Iranians.
This research aims to answer the fundamental question of how the photographs of Nasrollah Kasraian can be analyzed based on Ibn al-Haytham’s aesthetic theory.
The findings of this qualitative and descriptive-analytical research indicate that Ibn al-Haytham’s aesthetic theory, with its emphasis on twenty-two factors, structures, rules, and principles of photography derived from the visual arts, provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing photographs. Furthermore, by utilizing the elements of light and color and the twenty-two factors of Ibn al-Haytham’s aesthetic theory, the photographs of Nasrollah Kasraian have been analyzed.
Ibn al-Haytham considers eight conditions to be necessary for visual perception to occur, and he believes that without these conditions, visual perception will not be achieved. These eight conditions are: 1. The health of the eye, 2. The presence of light, 3. The appropriate distance between the eye and the visible object, 4. The placement of a visible object within the field of vision, 5. The absence of opacity between the eye and the visible object, 6. The transparency of the intervening medium between the eye and the visible object, 7. The appropriate size of the visible object, and 8. Sufficient coloring and texture of the visible object. Ibn al-Haytham considers these eight conditions to be prerequisites and the primary basis for the discussion of aesthetics.
Light: Ibn al-Haytham introduces light as the primary factor in visual beauty and believes that it is the sole factor that evokes aesthetic feelings in humans. In other words, he believes that luminous objects are the origin of aesthetic beauty. In photography, lighting is the most crucial element and the most important visual tool, whether it is natural or artificial light. Through lighting, one can define different moods for a subject. The selection of the type of light and how it falls on the subject can create different feelings and highlight various features within the subject, adding depth and transforming a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional one. Sometimes, changing the light completely alters the meaning of a photograph and can turn one image into a completely different one, potentially with vastly different meanings.
Color: It is the second of the twenty-two aesthetic factors. From Ibn al-Haytham’s perspective, the combination of different colors and sometimes a single color alone can evoke beauty and visual pleasure in humans. He considers color to be inherent in the life of humans and also present in nature, and he believes that being colorful or having color evokes the sense of beauty in humans.
Color is one of the most important and influential elements in photography compared to other elements. Its surprising and diverse impact on the emotions and interests of the audience led to a new phase in the realm of photography with the introduction of color. Color also adds meaning to the photograph and sometimes changes its meaning and concept, to the extent that sometimes the composition of the photograph is done based on the color element. Colors in photography are one of the most important tools for expressing emotions.
In the picture of cooking Ash (a type of Iranian thick soup) during the Pir Shaliar ceremony, published in Kasraian’s Kurdistan book in 1993, the emphasis on the light emanating from above evokes a sense of the divine and the sacred. Kasraian, by accentuating the upward-shining light, seems to have sought to transform this photograph into a kind of continuous religious belief, and despite the volume and depth of the subject, the upward-shining light has been shaped like a halo, emphasizing the sacredness and spirituality of the subject. The cool blue color used in the image conveys a sense of serenity and peace to the viewer, reminding us of the vastness and tranquility of the sky. Furthermore, this blue color is in contrast with the warm red color of the flame.
The claim that prompted this research is the finding of a communicative link between the views of an Iranian philosopher, Ibn al-Haytham, and the field of photography. The research path was also based on this fundamental question: How can Kasraian’s photographs be analyzed using Ibn al-Haytham’s aesthetic theory? It must be said that this research, by examining each of the aesthetic factors, was able to find photographic examples. The research also analyzed Kasraian’s photographs by employing the components of light and color.