Young woman in Fatehpur Sikri, India, submitted to ‘Beauty & Awe’ on National Geographic.
See the National Geographic photo assignments that Kristian Bertel has participated in – Read the story about his photographs here…
Kristian Bertel has contributed to the National Geographic Your Shot photo community with an assignment called ‘Beauty & Awe‘. Curated by Matt Adams, a senior producer at Nat Geo Your Shot, is in this assignment briefing us on our own perception of beauty and awe. Through composition, use of light, interesting angles of view, find them photos that just make us say “Wow, that is beautiful!”.
We should as Photographers evoke awe by transmitting our feelings or just have us in awe of the wonder of what a photograph has.
As Matt is saying it: ”- Beauty is everywhere. In the meticulous weaving of a Persian carpet or in the micrometric precision of a thousand kaleidoscopic facets of dragonflies eyes, or in the complicit gaze of these children reviewing their homework before going to class and beauty is everywhere or perhaps simply as the old saying goes ‘beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’”.
And Matt is continuing: ”- Awe is more like a sensation. When the image amazes us or surprises us. The first thoughts that come to mind when I see an image like this is, can this be real? Is this possible? Awe is an emotion that we feel when we’re faced with the extraordinary. It is a source of inspiration and motivation”, he says again.
”When beauty and awe meet together, then the image becomes a spectacle”
About the submitted photograph
The photographer participated with one of his photos from India, which depicts a portrait of the young woman was photographed in Fatehpur Sikri located in the Uttar Pradesh province of India. This magnificent fortified ancient city forty kilometers west of Agra, was the short-lived capital of the Mughal empire between 1572 and 1585, during the reign of Emperor Akbar.
Fatehpur Sikri is a fascinating site. A sumptuous sixteenth century city palace with courtyards built from red sandstone and abandoned after only fifteen years of continuous use, largely due to insufficient fresh water supplies. The photographer visited here as part of a India journey through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as such, this ghost city came hard and fast after the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal. Despite two illustrious nearby neighbours, this architectural ‘gem’ held a unique atmosphere and was well worth seeing in its own right.
It was quite busy while he was there, but Fatehpur Sikri is deceptively large and it was possible to take photographs of almost empty buildings, courtyards and water feature by doubling back into previous seen areas.
”- Awe and beauty are difficult to define and the meaning of the words have changed over time and both words are both emotions comparable to wonder”, Kristian Bertel says.
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Tags: #india #travel #portraits
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