Annie Spratt, the UK-based photographer, has one of the strongest modern instincts for photographic imagery, capturing beauty with neither shame nor sentimentality, at a near-perfect rate. Her wide success with many millions of downloads of her work, is a forceful defense of unflinching beauty and its power.
In a time when many artists are pushed toward empty avant-garde and nihilism, fighting to assert themselves as novel and original for novelty’s sake, sometimes a restrained but gifted use of artistry can be the most powerful choice.
C.S. Lewis says it well:
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
Excellence of craft praised with your own particular “lens” as a unique person is enough to make for exquisite art, and Spratt embodies this principle to a high degree. She captures what is lovely, in her own way, with tasteful edits that add to the poetry, and without undue concern about “originality.” She is original because she is good, she is skilled, and she cares about capturing what is beautiful.
The result is that when skimming through mountains of photos online, one can immediately tell a piece is hers at a quick glance, before checking the artist name.
I have been fascinated by this phenomenon: in an age where everyone can play photographer via their iPhones, how is that she manages to have such a distinct aesthetic footprint?
And yet she does.
I am proud that her photos formed the initial aesthetic mood for my Catholic music project, Cassia & Myrrh, with both artistic forms building on a deep and intuitive love for contemplation and beauty. The photos I used have aged phenomenally well, and I continue to use them and other new finds of hers where applicable.
I searched for lilacs on a site where she is a contributing photographer and part of the editorial team. Every one that I selected, I noticed was hers. I was struck immediately by the use of color and contrast to reveal something so simple as profound—as if flowers are truly a clue to another, deeper, truer world.
Regardless of what I am searching, it’s incredible how often my first choice happens to be an Annie Spratt creation. She has well-earned the go-to place she has among many seeking beautiful visuals, and has inspired many to choose beauty over novelty, nihilism, or ugliness.
Her contribution is substantial.
beautyrebuild.com 