Why the criticisms of photographer William Eggleston’s 1976 exhibition Color Photographs and its accompanying monograph Guide, are biased, myopic and irrelevant. American photographer William Eggleston has become known as one of the... more
Why the criticisms of photographer William Eggleston’s 1976 exhibition Color Photographs and its accompanying monograph Guide, are biased, myopic and irrelevant. American photographer William Eggleston has become known as one of the world’s greatest photographers and the inventor of colour photography. His works, that depict ordinary scenes and feature objects including pools, anoraks and ceilings, are approached with an outwardly snapshot and haphazard style that offered revolutionary inspiration to countless photographers in the generations that followed him. However, in his first solo show in 1976 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art his works were criticised as being boring, banal and unworthy of even basic students whilst the show itself was for some the most hated show of the year. This paper aims to analyse the exhibitions reviews before positioning and analysing it in a historical, stylistic and philosophical context in order understand the work’s influence and to add further weight to the arguments that aim to defend him from those initial criticisms.
Questo contributo intende indagare le analogie e le differenze del modus operandi di Ghirri e di Eggleston. Verranno soprattutto prese in esame le rispettive serie fotografiche quali Kodachrome (1978) e William Eggleston’s Guide (1976).... more
Questo contributo intende indagare le analogie e le differenze del modus operandi di Ghirri e di Eggleston. Verranno soprattutto prese in esame le rispettive serie fotografiche quali Kodachrome (1978) e William Eggleston’s Guide (1976). Oltre agli aspetti tecnici, si vuole far emergere il concetto dello scoprire il mondo attraverso minime incursioni verso l’esterno, restando sulla soglia della loro casa dove tutto nasce e tutto ritorna, che sia a Memphis o a Scandiano.
Статья связывает Уильяма Эгглстона с американскими художниками 1960-х годов и их стратегиями, в частности, с Эдом Рушей. Другая аналогия - Марсель Дюшан. Метод фотографа определяется через "двойные послания зрителю" и "разрыв коммуникации".
Resumo: O trabalho versará sobre o ocaso que se instalou entre os críticos da fotografia de arte acerca da instalação das obras coloridas de William Eggleston em 1976, no MoMA de Nova Iorque. Se as cores fotográficas – como se evidencia... more
Resumo: O trabalho versará sobre o ocaso que se instalou entre os críticos da fotografia de arte acerca da instalação das obras coloridas de William Eggleston em 1976, no MoMA de Nova Iorque. Se as cores fotográficas – como se evidencia por ampla documentação histórica apurada pelo casal Henisch, por exemplo – sempre foram ensejadas, por que Eggleston foi achincalhado com tanta veemência? Partindo da heurística da teoria da atenção estética, este trabalho procura explicar como o ato de Eggleston lançou ao primeiro plano da atenção (logo da discussão e apreciação) certos dilemas que antes se velavam sob a insuspeita designação de incapacidade técnica.
To photographic colours and William Eggleston, brief reverence
Abstract: This article will focus on the uproar that took place among critics of the photographic art over the installation of the colorful works of William Eggleston in 1976 at MoMA in New York. If the photographic colors were always desired – as the Henisch couple claims, for example, substantiated by their extensive historical documentation, then why was Eggleston so vehemently ridiculed? From the heuristics of aesthetic attention theory, this work seeks to explain how Eggleston’s act foregrounded certain dilemmas to our attention (and therefore, discussion and appreciation), dilemmas that were previously veiled under the unsuspect designation of technical incapacity.
