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Cheim
& Reid January 6 - February 7, 2004
reviewed by James Rosenthal
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Having grown up in Atlanta, Georgia, I can attest to the fact that this show captures a strong sense of style and place that is now period South and in retrospect, it is easy to see Eggleston's decision to photograph the newly built supermarkets and gas stations of suburban Memphis as his first step towards breaking with the old school and the considerable influences of Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. These images confirm how well he learned those formative lessons in his twenties. As for his later notoriety as the father of color art photography, these works prefigure that structurally but tend to give evidence of his equally important interest in social developments as key to forwarding art. The furor over Eggleston's adoption of so-called banal subjects is still talked about but is only relevant with hard core photography classicists. He may be responsible for opening that can of worms initially but after thirty years there is perhaps a misled assumption that what Eggleston was doing was promoting the use of snapshots willy nilly, both via color and subject. Of course, this was not his intention though it suggests that the classicist view may be partly justified since it has now become nearly ubiquitous. The apparent "mundane" subjects in this case have more to with common photographic trope; these subjects are familiar because photographers have always depicted their local environment. This collection of 69 black & white photos is surprisingly powerful and puts later work in perspective. It dispels any doubt that his renowned color images of the 70s must lack structure. Examining these works from 1960-74 also sheds light on his methodology and his later motivations. The reason the photographs stand out now -- and this adds to understanding his contribution -- is because they suggest an uncanny world which contrasts the otherwise typical and conventionally formal shots. The new built up American roadsides are unusually dark, pushed into a more solid universe, something of the camera not of humanity. This car-dominated landscape, burgeoning at the time, is used in conjunction with exceptional formal skills and with varying methodology -- some images utilizing heavy grain and some incredibly sharp. The result is the hybrid he created, albeit precolor. Gas station attendants never looked so strange and austere. Can these photographs be the missing link between classic photography and the new art photography which now is so commonplace? A case can be made. But, although his influence persuaded hundreds of other practitioners to get on the bandwagon, by comparison, and to Eggleston's credit, the blown-up casual and snap-like work so common to exhibitions these days seems compositionally challenged and lacking the formal depth he controls. Unlike others, it became possible for Eggleston to straddle two worlds via his mastering craft and subsequent ditching its conventions. His color breakthrough certainly broadened photography's pantheon and made progression possible but why is the subject matter considered such a development? Surely there are precedents in earlier photography, not to mention throughout the entire history of painting. This becomes more apparent as photography continues to mine more and more of painting's myriad social functions and it is judged using a similar yardstick. The inclusion of Eggleston's 1974 film, Stranded
in Canton, serves as the time-based bookend
to the photographs and proof that Eggleston was working ahead of his time
both technically -- it was shot on an early Sony Porta-pack -- and in
terms of content. It further confirms the social relevance in the photos
and emphasizes by contrast the subtler strangeness of the stills which
on the surface may seem conventional, their oddities hidden behind the
everyday exterior. The film has no such veil. It documents the unscripted
action in a bar complete with transvestites and scary long hairs, a drunken
escapade, the kind you can't remember the next day. The stoned menace
reaches a violent climax when two guys bite the heads off respective chickens.
I won't mention what someone does with a beer bottle. All this might be
said to be fun and games if it weren't so purposefully shot, ominous and
uncannily prophetic of future art. Talk about the South rising again. ©
2004 James Rosenthal and InLiquid.com;
image copyright © William
Eggleston |
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