Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/06/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks George, refreshing to read that again. I like the part about his work not being a step forward, meaning that as far as success in the world of art and gallery, photography has plateaued on the fictionalized self portrait, a la Lucas Samatras, Sherman, etc, Their work lacks factuality and is sufficiently self-absorbed for the modern art tastes. Eggleston is sufficiently self-absorbed but also factual, which modern art looks down on. His real contribution is to show the rest of us how to make color photographs, using color as form as subject in a consistent body of work. When I started to take his work seriously I realized that color work, done correctly, is more difficult then B&W. I gained a similar appreciation for Bob Dylan when I tried to play his songs. At first I thought of them as somewhat banal, a good place to start learning. It wasn't long until I understood just how wrong I was. Chris On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 12:22 PM, George Lottermoser <imagist3 at mac.com>wrote: > > On Jun 1, 2011, at 1:14 AM, Mark Rabiner wrote: > > > I find Szarkowski eloquent above all else. He's my favorite photo writer. > > >> From: Christopher Saganich <csaganich at gmail.com> > >> > > >> Eggleston is interesting, he is non-Descartes, not existential, but > focused > >> on remembering the familiar. He is factual but is mostly driven by > >> composition and light. Reminds me mostly of Plato's idea that we forget > or > >> overlook the obvious, that our history is forgetting the familiar. > > >> I wish I > >> has Szarkowski's foward for the Eggleston Guide. > > Szarkowski's introduction to Eggleston > <http://www.egglestontrust.com/guide_intro.html> > his conclusion: > "As pictures, however, these seem to me perfect: irreducible surrogates for > the experience they pretend to record, visual analogues for the quality of > one life, collectively a paradigm of a private view, a view one would have > thought ineffable, described here with clarity, fullness, and elegance." > > Regards, > George Lottermoser > george at imagist.com > http://www.imagist.com > http://www.imagist.com/blog > http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- Chris Saganich www.imagebrooklyn.com