“I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around: that nothing was more important or less important.” Every detail, no matter how insignificant, takes on meaning. –William Eggleston
We rushed uptown on Sunday morning in hopes of a good parking spot and after some “coddled” eggs and waffles in the Whitney cafeteria got us in the mood we ventured upstairs to view the long awaited New York return of William Eggelston.
Years ago as a young college student I learned of Eggleston from a book titled “new color/new work” edited by Sally Eauclaire. The book had selections of photographs from eighteen photographers including Steven Shore, Mitch Epstein and Joel Sternfield, but it was Eggleston’s images of Graceland that were the most memorable for me. Over the years I have collected many of Eggleston’s books and I am very familiar with his body of images and history, (I even went to see the documentary a few years ago called “William Eggleston-In the Real World”) so you could imagine that I was fairly excited to see the show.
The rich color radiating from the dye transfer prints was absolutely beautiful. As I passed through the show I was thrilled by the joy of seeing images that I recognized so well, like visiting with old friends. And it was a pleasure to be introduced to so many new images, powerful photographs that spoke to me with grace and dignity. The room was full of people but I doubt that anyone noticed that I was so moved that tears were rolling down my face.
