Over the summer, I found William Eggleston's photo essay, "Faulkner's Mississippi," which is both photography and narrative about the American southern writer, William Faulkner. The thing that strikes me first about Eggleston's images is the deep vivid saturation that shouts for a closer look:
What appeals is Eggleston's everyday view of things, which is easy to overlook, but somehow grabs your attention for a closer second look..."an extraordinary ability to find beauty in the banal...and in its apparent casualness, it is emblematic of Eggleston's art, being both ordinary and loaded with meaning, utterly simple and yet endlessly complex" as Sean O'Hagen from The Observer put it.
Finding beauty in the banel right off the street is Garry Winogrand:
Being from Los Angeles, I'm going to guess this is Grant Street taken in the late afternoon sometime in the 1960s. Something about it appealed before I knew it was taken in LA; maybe it's a subconcious thing. The women look stylish and the intersection of shadows from their legs and window reflections are wonderful. Then there's the folks waiting for the bus. And the young guy sitting in the wheelchair seems unable to lift his head to look at these beautiful women who are looking at him, which is a bit heartbreaking, but maybe not really; maybe it feels good just be sitting out in the LA sun. Several layers of world all meeting in the one transient moment.
Some of my own recent banel reflection images:
1 comment:
Your carousel reflection image is amazing!! I hope to see it larger sometime to see the detail in that reflection.
That Eggleston photo is very funny with the sexual postions blacklight poster just edging its way into the composition.
Post a Comment