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拍品专文
“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.” - John Szarkowski
It was Eggleston’s landmark 1976 debut exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Color Photographs by William Eggleston, that many deem to be the critical moment in which color photography as a medium was accepted into the cannon of art history. In the monograph accompanying the exhibition, William Eggleston’s Guide, curator and academic John Szarkowski concluded his introduction by stating: “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.” (John Szarkowski in William Eggleston’s Guide, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2002, p. 14).
Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1939, William Eggleston is renowned for pioneering the use of colour photography in his images of the American South during the 1960s and 1970s. Known for his ‘snapshots’ of everyday life in and around his hometown, Eggleston records ordinary objects and moments in extraordinary detail, democratizing his subject matter so that a parking lot, or the condensation on a glass of iced tea, are captured with the same subtlety and attention to detail as a portrait of a neighbour or friend.
While Eggleston worked in many mediums, the process for which he is most well-known is dye-transfer. A highly laborious development process commercialized by Kodak in the 1940s, whereby the gradual build up of colors one by one, resulted in an unrivalled saturation and depth of tone. When applied to portraiture, curator and author Phillip Prodger argues that dye transfer enables Eggleston to be “graphically adventurous, giving emphasis to certain elements that might seem inconsequential in black and white” (Exhibition Catalogue, William Eggleston Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2016, pg. 28-29).
Although Eggleston has the power to transport the viewer with the clarity of his images, he gives very few clues for the viewer to discover the context of the scene itself. Although this element of indecipherability has formed the basis of previous critiques of Eggleston’s work, curator and author Phillip Prodger posits that while Eggleston’s images, “afford no possibility of linear narrative… [they] admit other, richer possibilities” (ibid p. 32). By abstaining from narrative or context, Eggleston invites the viewer to focuses on the very foundations of image-making: the endless possibilities and combinations of subject, light, and color.
Eggleston’s commitment to capturing his subject in detail, along with the deep saturation of color in his medium, result in powerful images of unexpected subjects that have the ability to transport the viewer into the precise moment captured. Untitled invites the viewer to see was Eggleston would have in this exact moment in 1970, sitting in the front seat of a car, turning to meet the frank eyes of a dispassionate girl bathed in afternoon light.
Untitled was featured in the exhibition William Eggleston Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2016, and is included in the accompanying exhibition catalogue.
It was Eggleston’s landmark 1976 debut exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Color Photographs by William Eggleston, that many deem to be the critical moment in which color photography as a medium was accepted into the cannon of art history. In the monograph accompanying the exhibition, William Eggleston’s Guide, curator and academic John Szarkowski concluded his introduction by stating: “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.” (John Szarkowski in William Eggleston’s Guide, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2002, p. 14).
Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1939, William Eggleston is renowned for pioneering the use of colour photography in his images of the American South during the 1960s and 1970s. Known for his ‘snapshots’ of everyday life in and around his hometown, Eggleston records ordinary objects and moments in extraordinary detail, democratizing his subject matter so that a parking lot, or the condensation on a glass of iced tea, are captured with the same subtlety and attention to detail as a portrait of a neighbour or friend.
While Eggleston worked in many mediums, the process for which he is most well-known is dye-transfer. A highly laborious development process commercialized by Kodak in the 1940s, whereby the gradual build up of colors one by one, resulted in an unrivalled saturation and depth of tone. When applied to portraiture, curator and author Phillip Prodger argues that dye transfer enables Eggleston to be “graphically adventurous, giving emphasis to certain elements that might seem inconsequential in black and white” (Exhibition Catalogue, William Eggleston Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2016, pg. 28-29).
Although Eggleston has the power to transport the viewer with the clarity of his images, he gives very few clues for the viewer to discover the context of the scene itself. Although this element of indecipherability has formed the basis of previous critiques of Eggleston’s work, curator and author Phillip Prodger posits that while Eggleston’s images, “afford no possibility of linear narrative… [they] admit other, richer possibilities” (ibid p. 32). By abstaining from narrative or context, Eggleston invites the viewer to focuses on the very foundations of image-making: the endless possibilities and combinations of subject, light, and color.
Eggleston’s commitment to capturing his subject in detail, along with the deep saturation of color in his medium, result in powerful images of unexpected subjects that have the ability to transport the viewer into the precise moment captured. Untitled invites the viewer to see was Eggleston would have in this exact moment in 1970, sitting in the front seat of a car, turning to meet the frank eyes of a dispassionate girl bathed in afternoon light.
Untitled was featured in the exhibition William Eggleston Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2016, and is included in the accompanying exhibition catalogue.