Views on the ugly are diverse and only a few of them are more thoroughly discussed in the technical literature. In my dissertation, through the analysis of referential authors, I study the phenomena and perceptions of the ugly in Western culture from the perspective of the theory of aesthetics, history, art and philosophy. Ugliness is often encountered in everyday life, but it does not have a unified definition of its role for the individual and society. I wonder what is ugly on a personal and cultural level, how to get to the ugly and recognize it, and why the ugly is necessary and useful. I define the concepts of aesthetics, viewing, seeing, photographic and aesthetic perception. I unify the findings into three categories of ugly and describe the process of finding relevant images of ugly around me. I eventually find these in myself and build an object that serves as a motif for a series of photographs and a photozin. I find that ugly is always in relation to the viewer; it is essentially a matter of individual perception. There is no single answer to What is ugly?, and that at the same time is the answer.
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