Wednesday 19 March 2014

William Eggleston Research

Eggleston is a photographer that fits into the theme of 'The Everyday' brilliantly as he photographs everyday objects, landscapes and situations in an attempt to heighten their appearance and make them seem more interesting. One way he heightens the subject matter is to use a process called dye-transfer printing which involves using a higher quality of ink to saturate the colours. It work well as he is printing everyday subject matter using the highest quality techniques, for the exhibition I want print my photographs on a high quality paper on a large scale as it will give the photograph a sense of presence. 


The photograph above is a one of Eggleston's that stood out to me immediately. It contains so many everyday elements that represent American culture from the simple wooden construction of the building to the corporate logos and classic gas pumps. Eggleston has photographed everyday subject matter but photographed it in late afternoon light so there are warm tones and long shadows making the image more dramatic and printed it using the dye-transfer method. 

''I am at war with the obvious'' William Eggleston

I was shooting today and refused to photograph anything that was too obvious, I had a conversation with Alan on Monday and he said that when you photograph it needs to be a struggle and you need to only photograph interesting subject matter so today I spent around 5 hours shooting and only took 20 photographs on 35mm film. Today I focused on photographing shape, line and form within pieces of everyday architecture and objects. I was influenced by Egglestone's philosophy of photographing the everyday but not the obvious and the work of fine artists Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko who use basic shapes to create interesting compositions. From reading Eggleston book and watching a Youtube documentary Ive learned a lot about his work and how he manages to photograph everyday landscapes and situations and heightens them so they become an interesting piece of subject matter. His photographs look like they were created in another world when they were created in this one.