5x7, by William Eggleston. Twin Palms Publishers/96 pp./$65.00
(hb).
William Eggleston is, at this point, a living legend. It was his
work in tandem with John Szarkowski's curatorial acumen that
eradicated the institutional ban relegating color images to the ghetto
of amateurs and snap shooters. Eggleston's disciples are many;
countless have taken up arms and rushed to the front of his "war
with the obvious." Arguments over the color photograph as art have
long ceased; now, one must search diligently to view fresh monochromatic
work.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Despite Eggleston's uniquely simultaneous position as a
living, working artist and a member of photography's pantheon of
gods, publishers prefer to mine his vast historical archive. 5x7 is the
latest volume to transport us back to Eggleston's Memphis of the
early 1970s. It is a lavish object, featuring dozens of images Eggleston
created with the titular large-format camera. But these photographs are
not typical Eggleston; while a few odd interiors and objects do appear,
the images are mostly on-site portraits--in color and black and
white--of alternately loose and contemplative bar-goers and oddballs of
the early 1970s Memphis scene.
Similar to his well-known photographs of inanimate objects, these
portraits offer a fascinated detachment. However, the difference lies in
the creation of a momentary relationship--a split-second connection that
ever so slightly allies Eggleston with the subject. Unlike his tricycle,
upon which we project ourselves, these subjects actually think and feel,
and Eggleston was there to capture them in the act. We continue to learn
from Eggleston through his pre-apotheosis work of nearly four decades
ago.
Adorno in America, by David Jenemann. University of Minnesota
Press/288 pp./$22.95 (sb).
Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability,
by Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, and Jennifer L.
Novak. RAND/104 pp./$25.00 (sb).
Axel Hutte: After Midnight, by Axel Hutte. Prestel/56 pp./$65.00
(hb).
The Beautiful Language of My Century: Reinventing the Language of
Contestation in Postwar France, 1945-1968, by Tom McDonough. MIT
Press/273 pp./$34.95 (hb).
Beautiful/Ugly: African and Diaspora Aesthetics, edited by Sarah
Nuttall. Duke University Press/416 pp./$27.95 (sb).
COPYRIGHT 2007 Visual Studies
Workshop Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.