Friday 4 May 2018

OUGD602: NYC - The Met


William Eggleston, Los Alamos

Eggleston's Los Alamos is photographic gold to me. His observations of the mundane every day life documents an honesty and sense of place transcendent of time for the viewer to observe a scene unentrusively. Shooting on Kodak film, Eggleston's images have a nostalgic tonality and traditionalism to documenting America, with vivid popping colours not fading over the years. Los Alamos was taken from 1962-1976 whilst driving through New Mexico. In its original concept, the Los Alamos images would be shown only as a group, with no commentary, titles, or representational hierarchy, essentially imitating for the viewer the artist’s own visual experience of the world. Most of the images are geographically nondescript, and thus remain strangely timeless, like series of moments continually happening in the present by utilising a signature snapshot style, adhering to the philosophy of the “democratic camera” which ignored convention and representational hierarchies. Eggleson's use of this is what makes him one of my personal inspirations and really draws me into the world and practice documentary photography. 




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