[I'll see if I can distract him by talking about a Southern photographer, folks!] Ahem! Robert- I'm really trying to get some visceral understanding of Eggleston's aesthetic with this picture. Thus, it's more about asking questions than answering them. How is it like his work? How is it different? How come his work and sell for 20 grand, and... well, you get it! Color is certainly important in Eggleston's aesthetic. That's certainly one of the ways that I am trying to evoke him in this picture, though I'm not sure to what extent I've succeeded. Where I feel I've really had some success may be where you say, "but there seems to be nothing chosen here as the subject." The subject of this picture isn't obscure, and neither generally are Eggleston's. Rather, it's inconsequential. The question isn't "what is it?", but "why is it?" or maybe, "who cares?" It shouldn't matter what it's a picture of. I find I really notice the lack of subject in Eggleston, it's actually very in your face. It certainly wouldn't be very interesting if that's all that was going on, however. I'm interested that I seem to have succeeded more fully with the banality than the color. Maybe banality is easier to pull off, but I don't really think that all I've got here is the plain drugstore snapshot variety. I think I may go back to this corner and have another go at this. The name is just an example of a tendency I have to give pictures names that refer to places that I fancifully imagine that they resemble. The resemblance can be very tenuous and it usually helps if I've never been to the place referred to. It's partly a jape on the travel photography genre-I don't believe in the geographic cure for bad photography. This house is in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. But it sure looks like Memphis to me! A. >"Alan P. Hayes" wrote: >> >> Homage to Bill Eggleston: >> >> <http://www.meaningandform.com/photography/images/Memphis.jpg> >> >this is an interesting "Homage to Bill" >I gather that your understanding of Egglestons work is that it is about >what color the world is. >"Oh, Look!!! Isn't the contrast of the yellow house and the blue paint >on the street interesting and significant?" > >Probably it is. But there seems to be nothing chosen here as the >subject. One could blur their eyes and essentially still gather the same >impressions from this scene. This could have been shot by the nearly >blind but not the color blind. > >Now, I myself have become a big fan of making the subject of the image >obscure. Often people don't even notice the subject of my pictures. But >in this case I think the same image could have been made by >photographing the intersection (or near intersection) of the yellow line >in the street and the blue and white painted crosswalk. The little >yellow house could perhaps remain tiny in the background if it served >the composition. But it wouldn't say anything more than the yellow line >would say. > >That said... the title implies that the image was taken in Egglestons >hometown. Is there any significance to that? > > >peace, > >r -- Alan P. Hayes Meaning and Form: Writing, Editing and Document Design Pittsfield, Massachusetts
