FYI & urban ku # 172 ~ unstuttering love
Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 09:46AM 
Genesee river and falls • click to embiggenLast evening, in a 'minor' inebriated state (the wife worked at home and women kept calling me all day long), I stumbled upon the Sundance Channel and William Eggleston and the Real World, part of a week long series of films about photographers presented under the banner of Lives in Focus. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that the series started on Monday and continues through this Friday. I can't believe that there wasn't an internet 'buzz' about this series and I can only hope that reruns are in order.
The photographers profiled are; William Eggleston, Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff, Helmut Newton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peter Beard, and Tina Barney. That's quite a spectrum of talents and genres. The Eggleston film was done in a handheld cinéma-vérité style (each film in the series was done by different film makers) that really complemented Eggleston's photography and his approach to picturing.
And, it is his approach to picturing that struck me the most, in as much as I came to a 'I am not alone' realization - even though Aaron thought that Eggleston looked like someone with alzheimer's walking around with a camera. But, as always, it's the pictures that matter and Eggleston's are absolutely amazing.
"The banal, then, is still banal, but now it's engrossing. I suppose this must be seen as progress, but Eggleston's belief has been and remains that what the resolutely high-minded call banality is the stuff of life itself. It is where we live -- but not only there. Much has been made of Eggleston's oft-quoted statement "I am at war with the obvious." Here he is, not atypically, saying a good deal less than he means. Eggleston loves the obvious -- he hates, and is indeed at war with, the idea of it, the contempt in which it is held. He sees what's in the gutter but also looks up to the heavens. As Malcolm Jones, an unusually perceptive critic of Eggleston's work, has observed, "He addresses the meanest objects with unstuttering love." ~ Stanley Booth/salon.com
even more FYI - today's picture is from a scan of an 8×10 color negative.
Reader Comments (5)
Mark,
First, I really like this scan! There is something the jumble of cars that really keeps me looking. It also "feels" like a hot, muggy summer day, but that could be wishful thinking!
Second, perhaps they will release the series on DVD.
The Eggleston film came out in 2005 and has been available on DVD for some time. Reactions from people I know were either love it or hate it. I'm in the love it camp myself.
Cheers,
Joe
Joe, thanks for the info
Michelle, it was an unbearably hot and humid evening.
Mark,
Just wanted to say how much I like the river image. For those of us who once lived there, it's just so typically "Rochester" (and I don't mean that in a bad sense). You can literally feel the humidity. How long ago was this taken?
It almost makes me feel homesick ("almost" being the operative word here!).
"But, as always, it's the pictures that matter and Eggleston's are absolutely amazing."
Right and right.