ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: William Eggleston

William Eggleston is an iconic figure in the world of film photography and visual arts.
In this video essay, we delve into the life and work of this influential American artist, tracing his journey to becoming a celebrated fine art analog photographer.
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[@lessismore4470]

Thank you. Eggleston is one of my favorite photographers (just like Faulkner is my favorite American novelist). Great video. Greetings from Poland.

[@Doogle136]

I respect your willingness to share your qualms about Eggleston’s work. I too find it curiously mundane on occasion and possibly lacking. That said, knowing something of his quirky personality gives an insight into his attachment to a distinct and contrary view point.

[@flyingo]

Thanks for directing a spotlight on these photographers, great and small. Yes indeed, art is subjective. I like your take on them all. For me, at least Eggleston’s work showcased life.. people, activity, emotion, social commentary without saying a word, and so on. Many, many photographers have been lauded for their photographs of landscapes or architecture, and while quite a few have created beautiful works, a landscspe is just a place after all. Put a person in the photo and there is suddenly a story. Juxtapose two sides of a social coin in the image somehow and suddenly there’s drama, interest, and thought. I’ve chosen to try and shoot more faces and less places.. because subconsciously, that’s what we want to see. Bravo for the likes of William Eggleston.

[@andrewbloch8659]

you would love his work if you saw them in person. DYE TRANSFERS ARE GORGEOUS

[@winetime69]

I just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your videos. They are always very well thought out and of just the right length.

[@eduardocordova8272]

This has become one of my favorites channels on youtube.

[@craigcompoliphotography1235]

Your work in these videos is excellent. Well researched and concise. Always interesting. Keep it up!

[@VicTheVicar]

Isn't a wealthy background more or less a must to be able to be seen as a successful artist? A recent survey among successful and established Swedish artists (those who exhibit their work at institutions and win awards) found that something like 90% of them were of very wealthy backgrounds, like being an heir of an industrial tycoon. It's not that their art is objectively better, but because they can spend almost 100% of their time creating new art instead of applying for scholarships and having side gigs like teaching. The somewhat simplified reasoning was along the lines: The more art you create the more likely you are to get an exhibition, and the more exhibitions you have the more likely you are seen as a relevant and important artist. It's a numbers game and being financially independent helps a lot.

[@DebenVanDamme]

Great insight. Great photographer. Well done 👍 thanks

[@thegreatvanziniphotos5976]

Excellent!

[@aronaldharper543]

A gem of a video. A reason to open this app

[@dirkwyse1609]

Excellent content, thank you!

[@chipmiddleton1439]

This is such a great channel. Hope you get noticed.

[@billhennig1087]

Real good

[@BenRipleyPhoto]

Thank you Josh for this very insightful video: the first about Eggleston I’ve seen to deal with the issues you raised at the end. You were absolutely right to do so. I like Eggleston’s work a lot - more so as time goes on - but initially I felt he was over-hyped as the ‘pioneer’ of colour photography. Much of this and his reputation owes to the patronage of John Szarkowski who championed Eggleston, whereas he was less enthusiastic about others whose colour work predated Eggleston’s (Ernst Haas for example). As such Eggleston got the plaudits, Haas becomes the ‘insider’ choice. Another theory about history comes into play; the adage that the victor gets to write history, and Haas doesn’t get the historical significance he’s due as a result. But as I say I think as my taste and own photography develops I ‘get’ his work more. Anyway, thanks again, your channel was an easy subscribe.

[@Tenskwatawa4U]

Well done. You did a great job, I thought, explaining the "Great Man" Theory, without getting personally involved in it.

[@thirtyfiveeyes]

thank you so much! glad you enjoyed the video!

[@philipu150]

Your thoughtful presentation provides plenty of material for a rich dialogue, not just "comments." If we step considerably back from the extended present to take a long-historical view of culture and the arts, that is, to put the past 50 years or so, for example, into a much broader perspective, we are obliged also to take a more "holistic" view of society that includes scientific and economic progress. In my opinion, such a view casts much of the past century-or-so's cultural trends in a light revealing a process of degeneration in which meaninglessness increasingly is given equal value with meaning. This ties in inevitably with what you mentioned about the great-man theory of history. Fortunately, human beings are complex; hence, our history is complex, and simplistic theories hit their limits before long. However, I'm not sure how one successfully denies the influence of outstanding minds in various historic changes. I had the privilege of working with one such extraordinary person, now deceased, over decades. Hated, feared, attacked, and marginalized endlessly by certain international power circles, he refused to compromise on principle. His ideas and proposals for a global renaissance are now actively at the heart of profound transformations underway on a global scale in this period of increasing crisis. Culturally, one can find a nascent but growing rejection of the irrationality that has overwhelmed popular culture and the arts generally over the past 60 years and longer. I'm not sure of the context of the excerpt you used from Eggleston about the needlessness of seeking for meaning. I believe the search for meaning is the most natural thing in the world for human beings, and that it is re-emerging, driving the rejection I cite, along with a rediscovery of meaningful human relationships and their expression in art as well as politics, economics, and so forth. Friedrich Schiller wrote about a difference between decorative art and art that conveys ideas. He didn't reject the former but explored the latter in depth. There is, in my mind, a certain connection between that difference that the evolution of the work of Paul Strand, who early on explored applying Modernist abstraction to photography in order to learn what it was about, but then moved on to create a rich, humanistic body of work (though in his last years, he focused his lens on his garden in France). His close friend, photographer Walter Rosenblum (husband of author Naomi Rosenblum, another ICP lifetime achievement awardee) also is someone whose work might interest you.

[@douglasmccart8963]

Brilliant absolutely brilliant going over to see what you have to say about Ernst hass hope you continue this channel

[@thirtyfiveeyes]

Thank you so much! Let me know else i should talk about in future videos!

[@kevinstern711]

Wow the score on this is beautiful, what song is this?

[@WhoIsSerafin]

I think the photo of the two men was hugely, overly interpreted. But a interesting video nonetheless.

[@gurugamer8632]

Which was his preferred focal length

[@stephengreico2810]

Was his primary focal length 35 or 28mm?

[@SteveSelvidge]

A great majority was 35mm focal length. Some of the Democratic Forest was shot with an Olympus 35RC which is a 42mm f2.8

[@linjicakonikon7666]

Good video until you went woke. Unsubscribed 👎.