William Eggleston - "The colourful Mr Eggleston"

 When asked what he photographs, he simply returns with "Life today". He is an banal photographer, who is based in Memphis, Tennessee.

We can gain more ideas and context about the word banal by looking at its synonyms, shown under his portrait. Words such as 'ordinary', 'routine' and 'dull' can be used to describe his subjects, however his images are 'challenging', 'stimulating' and 'imaginative'. They capture the audience and get them thinking about what he has photographed and what does it mean?

He was born in 1939 and still photographs his home town, on the everyday theme. He has had over 50 years of career time but hardly ever titles or gives more details about his images. Speaking about himself, he told about his personal disciplines  one being that he would only take one picture of one subject. Anymore is then confusing to him and that if he cannot decide which is the better image. Gaining his first camera at 18, he started using black and white and home printed his work.  Self teaching himself, he first looked at the kodak manuals, which were scarce. He is also interested in the work of Henri Carter Bresson, specially his composition and his photojournalistic style.

"Never take any object for granted" - All the components and individual details to an image add meaning and depth. You cannot ignore them.

His use of colour film in the 60's , this changed and shaped photography. Before this, art photography, which his work was, was black and white. He was also the first to use dye transfer for his prints, this again shaped photography.

His famous 'Red Ceiling' picture, shown to the right, was done out of habit. He was with his friend to the image.  The lack of the detail, except the roof, gives the image a mystery and anxious feel. This is because you cannot see the rest of the room. Another point is that the poster to the left of the picture, also adds context and can lead the audience to think differently.

and his wife, picked up his leica and his flash. Took the picture and then went back to talking. However, there are so many aspects of this picture that make it compositionally pleasing. Firstly the highly saturated red makes it alluring. Right away the audience is attracted to the picture and the contrast between the red and the white of the power lines. The image itself does show its age, by using the flash. This illuminates the bulb, but also adds a vignette to the picture, aiming the audience to the light bulb.

In 1973. Andy Warhol introduced Eggleston to video cameras. He then picked up a Sony PortaPak and documented not only his kids but bars and clubs. His style here is very similar to his pictures, very banal and ordinary. They are around 40seconds long, but do make me very confused and want to know more about the situation, similar to his pictures. "Natural, organic and one shot only" In the video we were told he often woke his kids up in the middle of the night, any time, to photograph them and their emotions. This is shown in video form as well <. We were told he often didn't do portraits, but when he did the models often didn't know he was there. But obviously this was very different, but the style is the same.

Never graduating from university, Eggleston spent the time perfecting his techniques and developing himself.

The first book of colour photographs that Eggleston showed was titled 'Egglestons Guide'. It was published by John Szarkowski, who also gave Eggleston his first exhibit. The guide was very much aimed at showing his private moments; his house, family and his life through pictures. He captured the perfect moment, banal images that became iconic. The exhibit, in 1976, along with the book, was dubbed the "worst exhibit of the year", the critics were harsh, often saying they 'didn't understand what they were looking at'. However, later they apologised, once the public loved Eggleston's work.

The modern day influence of Eggleston has spread to film, music and fashion, two examples are shown below.



Purpose: "Contemporary art photography" - inform people that anything can be interesting and show things around his daily life.
Audience: Anyone that's interested in contemporary photography - family, those interested in his private life.



My 4 images, inspired from Eggleston:

(Above) This image took the idea of photographing everyday places and places that seem banal to me. This scene is one I see everyday and something I personally think is ordinary, routine and dull. In colour, this image was very saturated and bright, i found that this didn't work well with the theme and inspiration of Eggleston. I also wanted to use compositional factors to make the slightly boring theme seem interesting. The use of a frame within a frame directed the audience towards the middle of the shot, to where the most subject is. I also used leading lines to direct the audience around the page.   A few differences compared to eggleston include the fact I used black and white for this image, and that I chose still life and inside location.    

(Above) This image is again slightly more styled compared to Eggleston's work. In his portraiture work, often the models are facing forward into the camera, with a lot of space around them. Here, due to my style, I have tried to get closer to the model and to mask their identity via the arm and shadow. I like this effect as also it looks like the model is unconfident with the camera and is trying to hide themselves. Again, I have used black and white to stop the colours distracting and making the image less banal and relatable to his work. The narrow depth of field draws the audiences attention to the one spot of detail to the image.  

(Below) This image is similar to the one above, in the way it is distracting the audience away from the models identity. I have tried to use a vast amount of space, to make the image less interesting and to also direct the audiences eye to the model. Again I have used black and white to not allow the audience to be distracted from the colour. 

(Below) This image is a still life of a light. This shows an exposed ring of light, illuminating the lamp and un-exposing the ceiling around it. This gives the ceiling a black colour, which contrasts with orange and pink of the light. I gained inspiration for this image from the quote 'Never take any object for granted'. A light is in each room and is often not looked at or noticed. There is a rule of thirds in the image, making the light the middle of the image and the main focus. There is also leading lines within the shape of the light which drag the audiences eye around the page.