William Eggleston Exhibition

I have recently visited an exhibition of recent photographs by William Eggleston at the Victoria Miro Gallery, London, entitled 21st Century. Tennessee born William Eggleston is considered to be one of the most influential photographers of the last half-century and has been called "the father of colour photography" from a time when black-and-white was the norm.



As I walked around this exhibition of twenty-two new photographs, I was trying to understand what was so special about this body of work. Certainly the normal rules of photography, as taught so far on the Art of Photography course, didn't seem to apply as the compositions were, in many cases, 'unbalanced' and horizons were often not straight. One could also imagine someone taking a lot of hurried snaps of random subjects and coming up with the same results.



However, it was clear that a great deal of thought had, of course, gone into these photographs and their apparent randomness was the result of a keen eye for the unusual view of everyday objects and situations. I particularly liked a 2004 photograph of Santa Claus apparently floating above a Memphis street but, in fact, stuck to a car windscreen which was photographed from inside the car. Also, a 1999 photograph of a spoon on a wooden windowsill in Kentucky.



Many of the photographs displayed some interesting colour combinations and there were a lot of abstract compositions like that of the ice bags inside a freezer and the soap pattern on the windscreen in a car wash.

All in all a very thought-provoking exhibition.