On 5/12/2010 9:19 PM, Miserere wrote:
On 12 May 2010 20:51, Mark Roberts<[email protected]> wrote:
Tom, perhaps what's bugging you about Eggleston's work subconsciously
is that same thing that bugs me consciously about it. I'm not an
Eggleston hater - quite the contrary, I find I have a greater
appreciation for his work after seeing it in person and in a large
collection. I see some pretty good ideas at play and some pretty good
work resulting. What annoys me is the over-glorification of Eggleston
by the art world. It's as if, after years of dismissing color
photography, when the art snobs found one color photographer they
liked they overreacted to the point of near-deification, compensating
for past oversights by heaping excessive praise on work that didn't
deserve it.
In short, I think his work does deserve praise, but not the ridiculous
adulation it's received from some quarters.
I think Mark has summed up my feelings here. I've never hated
Eggleston, I just didn't understand why others like him. Like I said a
number of times before Chicago, I really wanted to see the exhibit
because maybe seeing prints and taking time to look at a good chunk of
his work would help me understand. But it didn't. True, there are some
shots in there that I liked, but they were few and far between. When I
remarked to Stan how I quite liked his large portraits out in the
corridor, he said "I hate them, but I love the rest". So I learnt one
thing: Stan is the opposite of me. Ha ha.
I did come away with one thing, though. Like Christine said, Eggleston
has a knack for American Gothic and the bizarre, even if it's not
immediately apparent. Many of his photos had elements that made them
strangely unsettling, like the begining of a Friday the 13th movie,
when all is nice, calm and beautiful, just before Jason comes out and
hacks everyone to pieces. I could see putting a book together with all
of these Eggleston pics (which might have already been done) and
calling it a day. But like Mark said, the Art Snobs just keep going on
and on about it.
Summary of how I feel about Eggleston: If Stephen King were given a
camera, he'd take the photographs Eggleston takes.
--M.
Obviously a different Stephen King...
http://thestephenkingphotography.net/
The blond at the bottom is kind of scary though...
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