Eggleston, and all the rest…
Back from NYC and scrambling to get to my blog. In one day I had many photographic experiences I will never forget. Good food too!
The William Eggleston exhibit at the Whitney Museum is beyond the pale. All the iconic images and a fifty year span of his work? It’s an experience I glad I didn’t miss. Eggleston was one of the “turning point” photographers – his work changed forever the way we look at the world and the art of photography. He was ahead of his time – by about 50 years! Thank goodness for John Szarkowski. Without his prescient insight, photography would be a whole different animal today.
© Eggleston Artistic Trust
One of my favorite photographs of all time:
© Eggleston Artistic Trust
Go if you can – and lose yourself in true brilliance for 1-2 hours. What a trip to see all the work together in one exhibit.
Later that day, we snuck into the very last few minutes of the exhibit of Frederick H. Evans at Kraus Gallery. I’ve never seen originals and I felt like I was in a room full of holy objects! I burned several of the images into my memory, including the gorgeous “Section through a Shell of the Nautilus”, below and the landscape “Derwentwater”. For more images to enjoy see the Luminous Lint/Lee Gallery site…
Earlier, I headed to one of my favorite photography galleries, Laurence Miller Gallery, to see the Peter Bialobrzeski show, and got a double whammy – a beautiful show of Maggie Taylor’s work. What an enjoyable experience to spend time in this friendly gallery looking at such intriguing work. Bialobrzeski’s images showcasing global architectural brilliance and irony, with no titles or locations noted, leave you with much more than you walked in the door with. For an excellent essay on this show, visit Conscientious – the blog of Jorg Colberg’s fine art photography essays and reviews.
Transition 23,2005 © Peter Bialobrzeski, courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery
Maggie Taylor’s show “In Wonderland” showcases a great cross-section of her Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland work. I bought the book Maggie Taylor’s Landscape of Dreams by Amy Standen so I could really get lost in Taylor’s work. I’d like to purchase one as soon as I’ve saved up – I just find them incredibly intriguing. In one room you can see what digital photography is all about. She’s a master.
Images © Maggie Taylor, courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery
Last, but far from least, we took an all-too-quick tour through the Diana Walker Political Party show at Howard Greenburg Gallery. Wow. It deserved much more than we were able to give it en route to an appointment, but I felt like my whole life flashed back before me as I was looking at these works. Walker was the presidential photographer and took pictures for Time, PBS, you name it. The Greenberg Gallery site is difficult to navigate, but get into the site, click on Exhibitions, then Previous Exhibitions and find the Diane Walker show. It’s worth every minute of your time. Here are two of the most famous images – Ronald Reagan laughing at remarks by Queen Elizabeth, and Richard Nixon exiting the White House. Iconic images indeed. Without Walker, many of these events would be lost to time, period.
Images © Diana Walker
More later…for now walk in my footsteps in that great city of photography. In just a few blocks I had such rich visual experiences and I hope you can get a flavor of them here.
