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Uploaded 24/7/02
William Eggleston
Hayward Gallery, London, from 11 July to 22 September 2002.
After the lyrical and mythic Ansel Adams, the
photographs of William Eggleston are like a punch in the gut with
a fist full of messy real life.
Eggleston was an entirely different pioneer — not only of
colour photographer, and a rapid, almost casual style (often without
using the viewfinder); but also in portraying the seamy underbelly
of America and the sordid detritus of human life.
Before Eggleston, colour photography had scarcely been taken seriously
as an art form, and one can imagine the sensation his images caused
at his first major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York in 1976. Colours are saturated, intense; his human subjects
unposed; traditional ideas of ‘composition’ abandoned.
Now, we are familiar with the artistic depiction of the mundane
and ‘trivial’ and the deliberate — often painstaking
— simulation of chaos and confusion, in everything from fashion
photography (such as heroin chic) to contemporary conceptual art
(most infamously, Tracey Emin’s bed). Twenty-five years ago
these ideas were revolutionary and, looking back, it is possible
that Eggleston is the, uncredited, inspiration for much of the output
of the YBAs and many of the glossy pages of fashion magazines.
Eggleston photographs an elderly man, casually holding a gun while
sitting on a bed in a cheap motel. The vivid colour of his shirt
jumps out at you; the longer you look at him, the more sinister
the image appears. I was forcibly reminded of the gun violence in
the United States and how the most innocuous individuals commit
some of the most incomprehensible crimes.
A young girl lies, eyes closed, arms outstretched, on bright green
grass; down the middle of her dress is row of blood red buttons
that could be bullet holes.
A bare light bulb site in the centre of a dark red ceiling that
meets dark red walls. In the corner of the picture is a small part
of a poster demonstrating sexual positions … a brothel?
In a wood, a large 60s American car stands, door open. By its side
is a middle aged white man in a suit; behind him, a black man in
a servant’s uniform. The image speaks of the American South
and attitudes to race that persist well into the present day.
There are more than 200 images in this exhibition, taken individually
many could be dismissed as simply ‘snapshots’ — as
they were at their original exhibition. In totality, however, they
constitute a coherent analysis of an unseen America; the real America,
rarely seen by tourists or portrayed on television; the America
— and Americans — not included in the ‘American Dream.’
Robert Johnston
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