Getty Museum
Memphis
Creator
William EgglestonAmerican Photographer · 1939–present
All works by this person →William Eggleston assumes a neutral gaze and creates his art from commonplace subjects: a farmer's muddy Ford truck, a red ceiling in a friend's house, the contents of his own refrigerator. In his work, Eggleston photographs "democratically"--literally photographing the world around him. His large-format prints monumentalize everyday subjects, everything is equally important; every detail deserves
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1965–1970
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
An older woman stands outside a shopping center near a coin-operated children's ride--a small elephant about half her height. The woman's enormous purse rivals the elephant's platform in size. By using a wide-angle lens and a close-up perspective in this photograph, William Eggleston enhanced his subject's awkwardness. Through such distortions, it may have been his goal to make the commonplace--people and things at a mini-mall--seem out of place. As Curator John Szarkowski of New York's Museum of Modern Art observed in his introduction to *William Eggleston's Guide,* "the design of most of the pictures seem to radiate from a central, circular core." Elevated on his stage and centered in the frame, the elephant is, absurdly, the star of this scene. Parallel lines from the shopping center's overhang appear to radiate from it, while the woman and a mailbox balance the composition on either side.
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