The Place of the Sublime and Its Instances in the Realm of Photography

The Supreme Sense is the same superior arcane feeling through which the actual quality of being a human is formed and accordingly a human being will be able to appreciate the true essence of his/her existence. Realized through raising moralities, such a sense makes an association with the true identity (self) of a person impelling him/her to reflect, even for moments, on the genuine meaning of being a human. The idea of the Sublime was originally suggested in the late of the 17th century. Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant and in the contemporary era, Jean-François Lyotard, are among the most influential philosophers and theoreticians addressing the idea of the Sublime particularly in aesthetics. This idea dominates all other awe-inspiring experiences like seeing an endless ocean or standing on the edge of a precipice. Even a significant word, in an epic for example, or a transcendental thought realized by a human being deserving admiration is also included in the scope of the Sublime. Not only in the realm of aesthetics, but also in the artists’ works, the Sublime has been represented. Similarly, photographers, too, have tried to convey the Supreme Sense to their viewers by means of a two-dimensional medium: orography. The present article examines the idea of the Sublime historically and aesthetically and studies the ideas of the philosophers comparatively addressing the issue of photography. In fact, the thoughts and feelings of the photographers to create photos engaging the viewers well beyond the phots themselves, have been addressed. Data were collected based on library sources and analyzed descriptively.