William Eggleston

Okay, I'd like to start with the first song, Rosemary with a Bible and a Gun.

Yeah, this is supposed to evoke the photos of William Eggleston, which I think is interesting.

Musically, it's piano driven with a violin backing, but it's not like a country fiddle.

This song starts everything out on a melancholy note.

the quiet beauty of everyday life.

Saul Leiter, of course, knew all this better than anyone, as I think did William Eggleston, although he's not exactly what you call a street photographer in the conventional sense.

Maybe Dido Moriyama did too, actually, in his own unique way.

So what does this mean? I could be looking for reflections that mess with the mind, reflections that obscure faces.

You may know that he achieved his unique style by using long lenses, usually between 90mm and 125mm.

And this is perfect for this kind of photography.

Then there's William Eggleston, who I also mentioned, who was an expert at drawing out beauty from mundane things.

And like Leiter, it was always in colour, certainly in the latter part of his shooting life.

Yes, it is.

In contrast, The Row took out a double-page ad, an FT – I was like, you know what I'm talking about – a few weeks ago, and it was just a William Eggleston photo, just like a landscape photo, literally no text or anything.

And I was like – Way to zig while everyone else is zagging.

It just spoke to their taste and aesthetic.

Yeah.

One of my favorite sort of, I guess, commissions I think about is William Eggleston's Election Eve.

Yeah, he's just like, fuck this shit, dude.

I'm going to go take pictures of bushes.

And I don't know.

I haven't heard all of the story around that.

I've only heard the William Eggleston.

I don't know if the client was like, this is exactly what we had in mind or whatever.

Well, I look forward to that enormously because I think we may agree.

And of course, there is also William Eggleston at the Photographer's Gallery.

I'm making a note.

There are other things I haven't actually thought.

Oh, Susan Micellus.

Always love a Susan Micellus exhibition.

William Eggleston Photographer's Gallery.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, this is supposed to evoke the photos of, uh, William Eggleston, which I think-

Mm

... is interesting.

It continues to reverberate in the photo world.

But, you know, if you go back and you look at the work of, let's say, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston, even the work of Ed Ruscha or the industrial photography of the Beshers, you're definitely going to see Walker Evans' influence front and center.

I will share links in the show notes to the many places online where you could find examples of Walker Evans' work, specifically examples from this book, American Photographs.

Also, I will share some images on the Right Eye Dominant Instagram page.

Moving on to contemporary photographers.

um still working not exclusively i don't think anybody works exclusively in film now um but certainly working extensively in film uh mark steinmetz um alex soth uh vanessa winship um you know great uh great photographers um alex webb matt black ken light so we still have the British ones yeah yeah we still we do yeah and then of course there are the ones who sort of have made their mark in color photography uh William Eggleston, Joel Merowitz and who had a lovely interview with Joel um was it probably a year ago 18 months ago where we talked about his work and inspiration and of course I started off the interviews to say so when you started with black and white photography oh my goodness what what an unfortunate start to an interview with Joel but anyway he was there He was very quick to tell me that he started in colour and has always been in colour.

But I'm pretty sure I've seen one or two black and white photographs of Joel.

So, yeah, I think they're the photographers I'd cite as inspiring, inspirational.

Just as an example, uh, my husband and I were at the Illinois State Fair a few weeks ago, and it was a bright, hot, sunny day, and we were, we had sort of like these little, uh, chairs, foldable chairs that we brought with us to watch the parade 'cause our son was in the marching band.

So while we're waiting, I just kept watching the people walking toward us, and the light was exactly the same as the light that you find in William Eggleston photographs-

Oh, interesting

... from like the late 1960s.