Re: [Leica] Eggleston the Ungood

[Dave Jenkins <djphoto@vol.com>]

Guy Bennett wrote:

(Eggleston's pictures were) "so crummy that they garnered him a one-man
show at moma in new york, they continue to be exhibited in major museums
and galleries around the world, and they earned him the hasselblad
award.

but then again, maybe you're right about him and the rest of the world
has
simply misunderstood."


Eggleston was the first color photographer to have a one-man show at the
MOMA, which has more to do with a philosophical point that curator John
Szarcowski wanted to make that with Eggleston's pictures. The pictures
themselves are about emptiness and nothingness and meaninglessness,
perfect illustrations for an emerging post-modernism. Other honors have
accumulated in a follow-the-leader procession.

I remember Burt Glinn being absolutely aghast that someone like
Eggleston should receive such honor while genuinely great color
photographers such as Ernest Haas were passed over. Poor Haas...he
believed in meaning in photography.

Eggleston is the darling of the art world, but he has hardly been so
revered by the "rest of the world," who have not "misunderstood" at all.
It doesn't take long to see that the emperor has no clothes. Nobody
finds much meaning in Eggleston's photos unless they have already
accepted the philosophy that meaninglessness is somehow laden with
meaning.

Dave Jenkins.