William Eggleston's color photographs are featured in an exhibition currently at the Metropolitan Museum.
The photos are dye-transfer prints from his Los Alamos
series, taken mostly in the American south in the early 1970s.
series, taken mostly in the American south in the early 1970s. 
The curators wisely avoided writing their own interpretations of the images, and instead accompanied the photos with occasional quotes by Eggleston.
Eggleston's thinking about his images has inspired all sorts of visual artists and filmmakers who are captivated by the quotidian.
“I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around, that nothing was more or less important.”
"Whatever it is about pictures, photographs, it’s just about impossible to follow up with words. They don’t have anything to do with each other.”
“I want to make a picture that could stand on its own, regardless of what it was a picture of. I’ve never been a bit interested in the fact that this was a picture of a blues musician or a street corner or something.”
"Whatever it is about pictures, photographs, it’s just about impossible to follow up with words. They don’t have anything to do with each other.”
“I want to make a picture that could stand on its own, regardless of what it was a picture of. I’ve never been a bit interested in the fact that this was a picture of a blues musician or a street corner or something.”
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More quotes by Eggleston
The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum will be on show through May 28.
More quotes by Eggleston
The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum will be on show through May 28.
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5 comments:
I really like the painterly look of the photographs, especially the first on.
“Captivated by the quotidian.” Great phrase!
Akin to the painter’s “search” for subject matter - step out the back door.
Thanks for posting this. Wonderful pictures and quotes. In regards to Colonel of Truth's comment about "step out the back door" I think finding subject matter like this is actually harder and takes more searching than finding the picturesque. Maybe.
Thanks for posting!
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