Exploring William Eggleston's Approach to Photography
Ever looked at William Eggleston's photos and scratched your head? Wondering what the point of them is? However, when you scratch a little deeper into his photography there is a set of lessons to discover which will change the way you think about taking photographs.
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00:00 - William Eggleston
00:09 - What is the point?
00:57 - What is William Eggleston's photography about?
02:18 - Meaning in photography
03:12 - Photograph 'The Ugly'
05:07 - Influence of Henri Cartier-Bresson on William Eggleston
07:12 - William Eggleston and color photography
09:19 - Opening of Museum of Modern Art Show
10:56 - Understanding William Eggleston
12:36 - Photograph once and move on
14:16 - Democratic Photography
Пікірлер: 408
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Oddly, I didn't see one boring photo in the whole video. This style is unique and fresh among millions of photograohers spending all their money on the newest thing.
@klartext2225
Жыл бұрын
Oh yes: the first landscape was super boring. 0:50
@hanumanguy
Жыл бұрын
0.50 landscape, tree 13.11 concern me, if I posted them on Facebook maybe maybe my mom would give them a like but no one else.
@wildmano1965
Жыл бұрын
You are right. Not boring. Eggleston has been at this type of thing for a LONG time.
@AngryNegativeHistoryProject
Жыл бұрын
Ever go out and shoot stuff like this, then come home to review 500 pictures that seem mediocre? Haha
@mrshadow2514
Жыл бұрын
See, this is the reason art is so subjective. One takes a photo, one says it's so boring and unnecessary, and one says it is so refreshing and unique and thought provoking....
Eggleston is absolutely unique and amazing. His eye for the ordinary is in a league of it's own. Do not underestimate his talent and believe it's easy. Try taking a week shooting like this and you'll realize it's much more subtle and difficult than it initially may seem.
@0ooTheMAXXoo0
Жыл бұрын
He is unique in his style, but nothing I see in these images are ordinary... Nothing in the real world is ordinary. Everything is always different, always new, every instant...
This reminds me of why I love certain types of Japanese movies and animation - the loving way in which they treat mundane, every day experiences as things to be savored. Household chores, shopping, cooking, walking/cycling/commuting. Where American cinema often sets itself up with dramatic establishing shots, Japanese cinema often sets itself up with a focus on mundane objects or scenes, to better establish where it exists in time and space. When we are all gone, the internet will probably preserve millions of professionally done, high quality pictures of beaches, sunsets, cityscapes, bridges, cafes, expensive and exotic hotels. But likely very few professionally done photos of ordinary motel rooms or small town grocery stores. I think we should rectify that.
@Frag-ile
Жыл бұрын
I can imagine future historians trying to piece together an idea of how society looked today by canvasing billions of selfies just to see what was accidentally caught in the backgrounds.
@lizatong1
Жыл бұрын
Lets!
@jonathangonza
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for this comment, it made me realized a deeper understanding as to why I like or love certain Japanese films and anime. It is far more interesting when a film takes its audience on a deeper journey with the characters to help the audience have a deeper understanding and develop a deeper connection with the characters in the films or shows.
@cesardiaz8774
Жыл бұрын
I was going to write my own comment about the video, but then I realized you had already started something in the vein of my own impression. I was going to say that there's something like an undercurrent between the work of Yasujiro Ozu, Giorgio Morandi and Eggleston. To me, saying their work is boring is premature if you only see the figurative topics of their images. Morandi, who later in life painted the same set of objects in the same table in the same room, but always obtained subtle variations that justified each piece, used to say that there's nothing more abstract than reality, and I tend to think that's what these three gentlemen had in common: they take the figuratively ordinary to build up a sort of abstract structure that's more interesting than the figurative content. The three artists were very clear about one thing: they kind of pictured the same things over and over; so, maybe their work is less about the things themselves, and more about their plastic value in terms of geometry, color, texture, spatial relationships and so on. I spend entire college courses telling my students that it's not things that are interesting (or uninteresting for that matter), but people, and the way we see. And images are just the visible trace of the process of that spirit. I tend to think those two things, plastic value and the artist's own disposition to see, are what we treasure in Egglestone's work, and Ozu's, and Morandi's. For many of us, it's not related to American identity (some of us couldn't care less), but to those other values.
@nikytamayo
Жыл бұрын
@@cesardiaz8774 indeed! The ability to inject your own personality into your work like that is something I struggle with, but something I do admire.
As someone who is often doing genealogical research, I can honestly say that it’s the seemingly mundane, everyday photos that hold the most information. They may be boring to some, but to me they capture the story of a life. The office space, the carpet choice, the way someone organized their cabinets. Everyday pictures are gold. I love your videos!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
@cathrynm
Жыл бұрын
Really, I was going through literally decades of old photos my father had taken, and all the vacations and nature stuff gets boring. But now and then, there'll be some old photos he took for some practical purpose, of the yard, of the cars, for some project he was working on, and those are special.
@vibesmom
Жыл бұрын
@@cathrynm I hear you, the volume of pictures matters for sure.
I’m grateful to this channel. I thought I was an imbecile for going to an auto show and shooting the building, long lineups, packed escalators, cafeteria etc more so than the cars. I genuinely cared more about the feel and grandness of the place and people. It’s so strange. I kind of understand. I went to a birthday and started shooting balloons LOL. Glad to know I’m not alone or crazy 😜 I love this channel. May it make millions feel as welcome as it makes me. Great job!!!! ❤
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Wow, thank you for watching
@kevinwhite6176
Жыл бұрын
I remember going up to my family's vacation cabin, which is on this remote little island in Lake Huron off of northern Michigan, and taking all these pictures of all sorts of stuff. Lots of closeups of things, etc. and I showed them to my mom, who had been up there with me, and her reaction was "why did you take pictures of all this stuff? this isn't what makes me think of this place!" and I'm like... well, I'm not you, am I?
@paulbonge6617
Жыл бұрын
@@ThePhotographicEye I like that you do a somewhat impassionate presentation yet give quite insightful commentary at the same time. I might add my reply to a seemingly dismissive comment, however I'm still unclear as to where the Monsieur Pranzé stands: A "Dandy or a Fop" is a man overmuch concerned with neatness and style in fashion and appearance. The definition is basic but the use of the term going back to the 18th century, implied affectation and feigned indifference or cynicism. It implied the "Dandy" was somewhat shallow and only concerned with their own "Peacockish" ways. In the case of Eggleston, you couldn't be further from the truth or understanding. His style of photography has a distinct quality of a snapshot but snapshots they are not, and neither was he a hobbyist. In contriving his images there was a depth of understanding of the visual arts of his present and the past that informed his eye. To so nonchalantly trivialize him as a "Hobbyist" dandy who took snapshots implies that the body of his work are all accidental. At first, I got the impression that you were making an observation favorable to Bill, however you contradicted yourself immediately with the "Dandy" comment and left me wondering. Then the throwaway line reeking of snobbishness that Bill's work has somehow and for no good reason, become iconic decades later? It was iconic at the time and widely lauded as such. My father was a friend of Minor White, Aaron Siskind, Paul Caponigro among other photographers, as well called Rothko & Newman, uncle Mark and uncle Barney. So, someone deeply rooted in 20th century art and photography, the first person to photograph Mardi Gras in the French Quarter seriously AND in black and white, standing alone, the archive of his Mardi Gras photographs covers over 3 decades and a conservatively estimated 50 thousand images. Minor published his other work in Aperture in the 1950's. This to say, that he and I were/are serious devotees of black and white photography, however my father often spoke of his admiration for what Bill did with color. There is great thought for composition and evoking great depth of feeling in his approach to photography as well as a solid grasp of the technical elements of photography NOT found in a hobbyist or snapshot approach! Again, Bill's imagery is far from accidental it was, before Warhol became famous for the truly banal, a significant contribution to Modern Art, sometimes a tongue in cheek, smile and wink but still very much in the vein of the AbEx movement if you look beyond the documentation of ordinary things, to shapes, colors, composition and overall look in forms and textures, it's very much at times abstract expressionism
@jasonhubbard5422
Жыл бұрын
You nailed how I felt. Crazy or an imbecile. I literally have tons of photos news paper dispensers, garbage cans, telephone booths and I think they are amazing ... And I thought I was crazy or something but it brings me joy.
@SunnyDiegoProduction
Жыл бұрын
People take photographs to please others, photographing what makes you happy is much better, no pressure or judgements.
The contribution of mr Eggleston to photography is above and beyond, he is one of the true masters of the medium, one shouldn't confuse his unwillingness to describe his work verbally with his clear vision of what he was looking for artistically. furthermore, an artist does not operate in a vacuum, the time in which Eggleston developed his craft and the culture he so well photographed clearly influenced his craft and gave us a window to the power and mystery of this incredible medium.
Thank you.. I now have a historical photographer who I relate to! I've photographed this way for over a decade, and often I get the same feedback... "I don't get it". I never let that stop me though. Seeing life, just as ordinary, in simply terms without reason, event or specular tales leaves more to the imagination, in my opinion. Shoot the mundane, unscripted scenes .... fill in the missing parts we often overlook.
He reminds me a lot of Vivian Maire. When I first looked at her work, I broke down in tears because her work was so good. William's work is superb. Powerful and intriguing. Quite compelling.
@DITTOE
Жыл бұрын
I think she heaps better
I’m about two minutes into the video and I have never heard of William Eggleston or his photography before and I don’t think these photographs are boring at all. Right now I’m getting a sort of “heightened reality of everyday life”-they’re moments of ordinariness, which would normally be ephemeral and fleeting and probably forgotten, frozen and preserved in time, which, to me, in a way elevates them. (Now I’ll watch the rest of the video and see how wildly off-base I am.) _Adding:_ Well, I wasn’t wildly off-base. One of the other commenters says how Japanese movies and animation “treat mundane, every day experiences as things to be savored” and I had a similar thought. There’s a kind of mindfulness to these photographs-they pull you back to look again at those things you might have missed, had you been there.
Love this, and Eggleston's work. I so identify with his philosophy: I shoot life today. I carry a camera most of the time, and I shoot anything and everything that captures my attention - a lot of images. And I typically will just take one shot, unless I see another way of looking at whatever the subject is, then i'll take another. I have definitely developed a "photographer's eye" over the years (50+ years off and on). One of the things now happens frequently is people reposting one of my photographs on their facebook channel because they love the image so much. That is very gratifying. Thanks for sharing your perspectives!
I love Eggleston’s work. It’s a breath of fresh air from the other work I see today.
The person is there, then gone! The atmosphere is there then gone and can never repeated. The joy and angst of photography.
But it's my boring photography... and it pleases me. But every now and then, a seemingly boring photograph, turns into something sublime. Also as the decades go by, some of these photos become really interesting.
He used the dye transfer method for his prints. Very high quality and vivid colour rendition.
Excellent Video. I have had a love hate relationship with the likes of Eggleston and Shore. When I first got more serious into photography, it took me a long time to get past the "its just a snapshot" feeling that my untrained eye gave me. But, here's the clincher. I kept on going back to them. Time and time again. There is art in the banality of it all. Only a truly good photographer can see the beauty in a scene that 90% of us would over look. Great conversation.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is that it really isn't very important what I photograph. What is important is that I have an opinion, an attitude, a reaction to what I am seeing around me. I don't know if this solves any mysteries as to how to make a good image, but it does help me be more mindful of what I am seeing and how I am reacting to it.
For me Eggleston is all about Composition, Composition, Composition. No mater the subject, not much matter of the light as long as it serves the composition.
@pranze3484
Жыл бұрын
Quite the opposite, he always went out early and late, when light is nice
I am a self taught loner photographer and honestly I only know about Ansel and Dorothea. But when I'm not shooting portraits for people I am always just walking about shooting my boring life around me. And I love it. I never heard of this Eggleston or your channel. Apparently KZread thought I might like it. I loved your video and subscribed. And now I will look for more of this mans photography as I absolutely love it! And I will take his advice. Take one picture of it. Thanks for this!!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
That’s awesome, thank you for watching and subscribing.
I look at each and every Eggleston photo and try to imagine me taking the same shot. Quite frankly, his photography is complex, from subject matter to composition. I could look at his work for hours. I guess it's easy to occupy a simple mind.
I had owned a camera a Fujica ST 701, which sat in a closet, and only came out during birthdays, Christmas, weddings, etc. Then I was sitting at a Memphis library waiting for my girlfriend to get a book. On top of the table where I sat there was a book "Henri Cartier Bresson" I begun to look thru it, and I thought "I didn't know you could do this with a camera" the adventure begun, I haven't been without a camera since that was 1978.
This video really tickled my fancy. Loved getting exposed to Eggleston's work and a glimpse into his creative process.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
Very interesting video! Thanks so much for sharing. I have to say I've been one of those guys who largely didn't understand Eggleston's work. This really helped me appreciate it.
Eggleston is an abstract expressionist, a color field painter like Rothko or Barnett Newman, but instead of paint on canvas, be is using found arrangements of objects, light and color to create stunning and haunting formal compositions that have a hint of Southern gothic about them but are essentially abstract. That he does it on the fly, like an improvising jazz musician, makes it all the more astonishing.
I have to give you a compliment. I was getting ready to shut KZread down for the day, and get to work. This video caught my eye, I figured I’d start it and come back to watch it from my history list… 3 complete videos later… I am wanting to thank you for introducing several new concepts and ways to execute them. It was worth a 45 minute investment.
I found this study of William Eggleston very liberating - thank you! It's easy to get stuck in an RPS/PAGB rut, when we are actually free to capture life in all its 'normalness'. Excellent stuff!
Like ICM, there is a subtle, but major, difference between pure accident and great composition - however casually the photographer speaks about it.
"Life today" - an excellent answer. Like Stephen Shore's "Uncommon Places", Eggleston's photos are magical to me. When most people photograph the ordinary, boring, ugly things, there is no magic - these photos by Eggleston, however, are different and wonderful in a way I can't articulate.
@jorghahn2903
6 ай бұрын
I like his photos as well but the question is if his photos were still magical if they were shot today and in the place were I live showing things totally familiar to me (modern cars, modern buildings etc.). I guess that at least part of the magic comes from the fact that his photos show a time and a place that are not familiar to me. Also, our times are much less colorful than the 60s and 70s... just look at the color of the cars or advertising signs. The same happens with the work of Fred Herzog which I also like a lot.
Use of shape , form, colour and juxtaposing textures and other elements just seems to work. The interpretation of an image is dependant on the elements that made it, photographer, light, lens, camera ... but it can very much depend on your own state at the time. Mood, and how you are feeling after what ever has happened in your day. Very interesting to think about and also at times maddening.
Wow... simply awesome video. I had never heard of Eggleston, thank you for the introduction! I am now going through my Lr catalogs and seeing my "random frames" in a new light!
I've only recently discovered Eggleston. I knew nothing about his photography philosophy. I've been shooting the 'mundane' for a while now, with the idea that what is boring today might not be so boring 50 or 60 years from now. I also don't like the idea that every image has to tell a story. As long as it evokes something, there's value in it for me. Whether that's nostalgia, happiness, a feeling of melancholy, then that's a good image.
Whenever I see a William Eggleston image I am reminded of Yves Kein painting Blue Monochrome. Subject is ordinary, concept is as you pointed out is revolutionary and that is what make Eggleston photography extraordinary.
I loved the use of color while capturing every day life in a way that you could actually see yourself being there.
I found this video very liberating (for me). After watching this video, I'm no longer scared to be and to do what "I" LOVE to do. Just photograph what makes me tick. I love this. Thank you so much again for this video.
Excellent presentation. Mr Eggleston is one of my favorites.
Fabulously inspiring video , many thanks Alex . Always love that pic he took of the drink 🥤 on the plane ! Have a great day
Just love the variety of perspectives you get on this channel. I have to admit that this approach to photography isn’t an easy sell with me either - but you’ve convinced me that it’s always well worth making the effort to take a second look.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
This is my kind of photography almost. The gas station image at 31 seconds in is beautiful. This is the kind of stuff I like to take photos of. I do it for archival purposes. Because who's to say in 5 or 10 years that whole area could change and become a convince store and gas station. That building and those classic lights would be gone. Replaced with some 7-11 and 15 gas pumps.
Seeing William Eggelstons work for the first time was revelatory for me. the color of everyday was a subject. It was what he saw and how he saw.
We studied Eggleston in the MFA photography program at Academy of Art University…and the other photographers of his generation - the ‘New Documents’ photographers: Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand. It was revelatory in that we saw that it was okay to photograph the everyday aspects of the modern landscape, but really, Life…all the things your mind’s eye filters out and takes as given. Or ignores. Very cool. Watching this has inspired me to start photographing ‘on the street’ again. I did it for years while working on my MFA and a few years afterward but then started focusing on commercial photography with lighting, in the studio and on location., something I always wanted to be doing while photographing on the street.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Awesome
Winogrand said of his photographs “I wanted to see what it would look like in a photograph”. I’m sure we have all taken those pictures.
The greatest way to overcome this perceived photo block is to go out and photograph a project. Get a subject that you are interested in and then go out and photograph it. Everything can make interesting pictures - it all comes down to how you look at it and see it. Eggleston's work is interesting and is on a different level to the truly boring Stephen Shore pictures that you featured the other day. Thank you for posting Alex - it is appreciated.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching
Thanks Alex for this review of Egglestons images, it was interesting to see how stuff we come across everyday can make a relevant body of work.
I think Eggleston preserves the impact of his photos by making the background/context feel genuine, whereas the FIRST thing average photographers do is try to visually over-construct it, like they doing a TV car commercial. Like the background is 'making shapes' for the viewer. The photos that turn me off are the ones where someone points a camera at random public, checks there are the requisite leading lines or symmetry or reflections, then posts it all online once it looks over-familiar.
Wonderful essay not only about Eggleston, but also the idea of what is or isn't worthy of a photograph.
So interesting and very much like the Stephen Shore episode last week. I am still delving into Shore’s work. I love this sort of stuff. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
You are such an inspiration! You always talk about the things that really matters in photography and in art generelly, thank you 🙏
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you.
The odd thing about W.E. to me is I don’t particularly care for his landscapes* but the moment a person enters the frame. His work blooms. I feel like he’s a portrait photographer or street photographer in hiding. The H.C.B. Influence also seems to only appear with the presence of people in the photos.
I think his photos are incredible! Loving all of them
Thanks for highlighting this unusual photographer who makes images of ordinary, "run of the mill" kinds of subjects. There is something interesting, sometimes even beautiful, in daily life, if only we have eyes to see.
This is a great video my friend! Really enjoyed it! 💛
I absolutely love his work. I find his use of colour and space incredibly fascinating. I so love so many of the ideas you have bought together here. Great work. Though I don’t think boring is a good word to use.
Brilliant, Alex! He is not just a modern artist, he is a documentary photographer. His unique work took me straight back to the 50-60s - the everyday lifestyle, cars, buildings, the fashion, the decor, the food, even the way tables were set - I well remember using those curlers, as shown in the bathroom and we set the table similarly. Today we’d probably be ridiculed for taking the same type of shots, but in the end, they too would be documentary, and probably valuable in an age where technology is fast replacing items we normally use today. Young people already laugh at our old dial telephones, not to mention the press button ones, now it’s touch! I think we should all get out and do what Eggleston has done. It’s history!
I really enjoyed this video because he took pictures of the same sort of stuff I like to take pictures of and I absolutely did not know about him before. I just enjoy taking pictures of the smaller and bigger things you notice in life because they are interesting to me for different reasons even if they not "traditional" subjects, they are part of a specific moment and might be "articulated" in a special way, even if they're "ordinary" or "ugly" or "boring".
I can’t see another of the perfect shots which populate Instagram. These photos are perfect in their apparent imperfection.
Your child could never take photos like Eggleston. Love his boring photos. Only he could take pictures like that.
Thanks so much for an inspiring and informative presentation of Egglestons brilliant work. Love your insights and observations.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
Delightful. I have a couple of books of Eggleston's works, love them, and have learned a great deal from studying the photos therein. In this video expose, you hit upon the exact point of why his photos are so fascinating. At first glance, one says, "So what?" Upon second and third glance, you realize there is a story or point of view - perhaps a brief moment of a story or simple statement, but there is a story in his photos, and he has managed to capture whatever that story/point of view is so succinctly. No need to dive deep. It's right there. Thank you for this very interesting look into the work of William Eggleston! I will be looking for more of your videos.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
That work is beautiful - a new discovery for me.
The composition is interesting and the use of similar, adjacent and contrasting colour.
Fascinating discussion … loads to thunk on here … ta very much!! 📷🙂
Eggleston makes the ordinary extraordinary and that’s what makes him great.❤
@woodystemms3799
Жыл бұрын
Only the pretensions are "extraordinary" ...
I got a good chuckle at "ashtrays and clouds." I get a sense of solitude with his photography.
This is me, so glad to see someone share the same view in photography.
Thank you Alex, for presenting another diverse idea. Great.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
Great stuff, many thanks again.
I have to admit I really like this style of photography. For me, I love how you can look at the photos and get a feel for what it was like being in Memphis at that time. It's almost like an authentic, historical archive in a way
Thanks for showing us some bw works from Eggleston! I like them. "Take just one picture" - reminds me of the time I shot color slides. Walking around a foreign city and having only 15 pics left in your last roll... you shoot everything just once. My "Eggleton Idea" I take from this: a series of "traffic light stop pictures". Driving through the city (Munich here) and reaching for my camera only when the car stands and I wait for green. One stop - one shot. Mostly drivers side window, but not necessarily. Let's see what I get... :-)
BRAVO!! “A picture is what it is and I’ve never noticed that it helps to talk about them, or answer specific questions about them, much less volunteer information in words. It wouldn’t make any sense to explain them. Kind of diminishes them. People always want to know when something was taken, where it was taken, and, God knows, why it was taken. It gets really ridiculous. I mean, they’re right there, whatever they are.” - William Eggelston
Thank you for this video…. Made me realize how much Mr. Eggleston represents all of us, if not then maybe just most, of us as photographers… your commentary at 11:45 and 14:15 sums his work and his place in the medium: Eggleston is one to never take himself too seriously it seems and basically just wanted to have fun with his camera, which adds a real down-to-earth-ness to his work.. his influence is probably greater than most of us realize, including in the current context of IG photography and film’s resurgence , where people now are photographing taillights of cars, things around their neighborhood, familiar buildings, architectural decay… I would dare say this his work and that of the unrelated, New Topographics movement have been the biggest movers of IG photography shot on film I’ve seen in past 5 years or so (case in point: just look at @ Kodak’s feed)
I recently regained interest in photography. It’s been lying dormant in the back of my soul for quite some years now. I like a lot of genre and I’m still wondering which one suits me best. I discovered Eggleston on this channel and have been fascinated from the get go. How this man turn the ordinary into absolute beauty. I’m constantly looking for a way to emulate his work and somehow make it my own. This second piece on his work has a lot of things for me to reflect on. Thank you Alex!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
Boring and Mundane is what I love to take and make it look Marvelous. I want people to see the Boring as not so Boring after all. Eggleston was awesome .
I love his work! For a long time, this was how I photographed, and when I started painting, I painted these things! I painted strip malls, and odd locations all over Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when I lived there, and so many of his ideas look like ideas I've had. Even his rather functional view of his vision sounds like the ideas I sometimes voice. My wife is an art history major, and she can not understand my artistic point of view (at times). As for Eggleston, I do see a lot more structure. balance, and experimentation in color, (or maybe it's just randomness,) than some of the critics might have given him credit for. I loved the photo of the interior of the diner with the sunlight falling on the counter setting. I loved the photo of the bathroom interiors. Again, that's a painting idea I've also considered. Thank you. This brightens my morning.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching
Very much enjoy the style of Eggleston and Shore! Their pictures seem casual but make a visual impact nonetheless. And look at how influential this style has been on art photography and young photographers today.
I've always loved how he got down low for otherwise uninteresting subjects. The tricycle, or a living room suite -at ground level - is a whole new thing.
Great essay! For a long time I liked Eggelstons images but I did not know why. I kept trying to find the meaning, either in the images individually or in sequence or even in totality. And because I could not find that meaning, they frustrated me. Thank you for showing how my attention was out of alignment with his images. I really appreciate the insights you have provided. The one thing about all the photos you showed, is that all of them are about something.... its just that the something is not the subject in the image, or even an idea as such... no what these photos seem to me to be about is photography itself... how an image is made, where and when it is made, and how the photographer aligned themselves, through the camera, to what they experience and perceive in the world. There are 2 kinds of photography, one is photography about subject matter ( landscapes, portraits, political work, journalism, documentary, et al) and the other is about HOW photographs are made. One is about the physical world as we encounter it, and the other is rather metaphysical, because it is, instead, about HOW we see the world we encounter. In philosophy, to over generalize a bit, there are 2 basic schools of attention... one is the epistemological ( the study of knowledge) and the other is the ontological ( the study of being and existence) . One is about knowing the world, and the other is about HOW the world exists. To my eye, Eggelston does not care very much about the things in his images, and instead, he cares a great deal about How those things exist in the world. How can a camera show existence and the mystery of it? Frame the world in ways that draw attention to the mystery that surrounds us all the time... a yellow car in front of a yellow wall. A red car hood, that is oh so red!!! The contrast of objects in the world, not what they mean, but rather how they connect, even as they are not actually connected... except in the photograph. I could go on, but I doubt anyone is still reading. Thanks again for your good video!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching.
I love the idea of taking a shot and moving on. Great video!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
I can relate to Eggleston. When I look back at the photos I've taken over the last 50 or so yrs, I, too, see what he is saying "It's about life". And I've taken thousands of photos-and still doing it today. :)
Eggleston displays excellence in composition, it doesn’t hurt that he knows where to stand, has the eye, and frames things perfectly… that being said he also captures a “moment” in every frame… I think he’s brilliant 😁🍻
Excellent. My copy of WE's Guide is my most thumbed photo book. I've read essays and watched documentaries and I have never known that he was inspired by HC-B.
Great one!
Without a clients expectation I am free to photograph whatever I like and not care what they think.! Some of the most sucessfull photographers were not that good techincally and took shots in a hurry, out of focus or crooked, breaking all the rules and never careing about financial sucesses or fame. Those 20th century photographers are the real giants of the proffession and why they will still shine bright long into the future. Eggleston is one of them for sure.
It’s my preference as it’s the only photography that truly spins my wheels
That "friend" who suggested Bill photograph the ugly stuff was an artist and educator named , Tom Young. Tom actually also started the art dept. at The University of New Orleans.
The photo of the Trike is amazing. Love that.
Enjoyed this, the sound bites from the photographers themselves add a lot. Evviva Egglestone. My photographer! Shooting rubbish with no idea why! I’d love one on John Free.
The sixties and seventies was a time of great creative opportunity. However, because there is a camera in every person's hand today, true art photography has become 'watered down' giving back the opportunity of the past. Thank you Eggleston for the example.
Wow that photo at 9:36 is really cool! One of my favorites of the whole video.
Interesting. I was served up a Guinness ad half way through this video. Guinness advertising is known for being visually arresting and creative. There was so much in the ad that reminded me of Eggleston's style! I've always thought of Eggleston's work, and that of the "New Topographics" photographers that followed, as a reaction to the precision, beauty and "epic ness" of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, etc who preceded them. It was interesting to hear the frustration expressed by Eggleston about everything around him being ugly. Maybe that's where the reaction starts? You see this a lot as you look at art over time; action, then reaction, as one movement supersedes another. Like a pendulum swinging. Although I'm sure it's part of what makes the Eggleston "look", I do sometimes wish he'd hold the darned camera straight though!
Hi Alex, What a great work ethic William Eggleston had. Loved the answer to the question when William was asked, what do you photograph, and William said, LIFE TODAY. what a great answer that was. His photos had great composition, it goes to show that a photo doesn't have to be sharp, to be a good photo. The story and composition are more important than sharpness in a photo. Loved his photos, Thanks for this great video.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for watching
@seaeagles6025
Жыл бұрын
@@ThePhotographicEye Your welcome Alex.
"How we are" by Euan Duff (1971) is a seminal UK book (forward by John Berger) of photography of the "ordinary" Of course the ordinary changes and becomes more "interesting" with time. Photography of the "extra ordinary" or of "exceptional beauty" is of course more popular than the common place but there is a deeper truth in the everyday. Capturing the everyday is something that all photographers will benefit from, examine the world around you and become a part of it as well as a critical eye of it.
This really helped me understand Eggleston for the first time. Sure, I saw that he often used light/shadows. Yes I saw that he loved color, or that he incorporates leading lines. But watching this video and hearing him talk and seeing the comparisons to HCB made me see it in a new way. I still think that there's quite a bit of his work that's just...not worthy of being called great. But I'm certainly seeing much of it with fresh eyes, and it's providing fresh inspiration, which is more than any KZread channel can ask for. thanks as always for the content.
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching
I believe anything can be shot and that all things can be a great picture, the problem starts when you try to becpme popular. Lovely vid as usual!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching
Great video!
I take pix like this. People are ancillary. Eggleston has a quiet sense of humor about adjacencies; kid's bicycle 2 feet from a bbq grill, Ladies erstaz purple dress is like camoflage on a yellow patterned piece of yard furniture. He is aware of incidents around him that appear to be compositions; and he's aware of camera position. The painted concession stand image would appear very different if he stood 5 feet to either side.
My favourite photographer
I just started watching your videos and they are amazing. I would have started to watch them sooner but the red underlining in your thumbnails made it look as though I had already seen them (you know, the red progress bar at 100%) and I kept scrolling past them. Great content!!!
@ThePhotographicEye
Жыл бұрын
I’m glad you’re here and thanks for the observation about the red line
To suggest that Eggleston is someone who makes images of boring things is reductive. His compositions are spot on, his color prints are so stunningly beautiful he’s credited with advancing color photography to the fine art level. I often find a pretty landscape or portrait of a beautiful person boring. In Eggleston’s work there is complexity, layers, and hidden implications. You can get lost in his work.
like his imagery, great 70s imagery informative video.
Love this type of photography.