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William Eggleston was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in a wealthy family in Mississippi. He is considered a pioneer of modern color photography. He achieved early fame with a one-man show at the New York Museum of Modern Art. The show's title was unpretentious and to the point: Color Photographs by William Eggleston. The photographs, which were taken in Memphis and Mississippi, showed everyday motifs as well as friends and family of the photographer. Prints were made using Eggleston's characteristic dye transfer process.
Although panned by critics and widely misunderstood, the exhibition marked the beginning of modern color photography. Eggleston influenced generations of young photographers, artists and filmmakers including Jurgen Teller, Andreas Gursky, Sofia Coppola, Gus van Sant and David Lynch.
The film documents how Eggleston came to develop his technique of art photography. It shows the first black-and-white photographs made at the beginning of Eggleston's career. Here the influence of Henri Cartier Bresson's decisive moment is still evident. Yet Eggleston went his own artistic way early on. Elements of his later work in color can already be discerned in the composition of the black-and-white photographs.
Reiner Holzemer visited Eggleston in Memphis in the fall of 2007. For the first time, he was able to get the photographer to talk about his artistic background and concept of photography. Up to then, Eggleston had largely refused to answer such questions. Of his photographs he says, I am at war with the obvious.
| Catalog Number: MC-910 |
Type: Short |
Genre: Art / Artist, Photography |
| Copyright: 2008 |
Length: 26 minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: All regions |
| TV System: NTSC |
ISBN: |
UPC/EAN: 880198091093 |
| Label: Reiner Holzemer Film |
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 This program is closed captioned
This is a Microcinema Exclusive title.
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Exhibition:
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Films In Compilation
William Eggleston - Photographer directed by
Reiner
Holzemer
Germany,
Documentary,
2008,
00:28:00
The film documents how Eggleston came to develop his technique of art photography. It shows the first black-and-white photographs made at the beginning of Eggleston’s career. Here the influence of Henri Cartier Bresson’s “decisive moment” is still evident. Yet Eggleston went his own artistic way early on. Elements of his later work in color can already be discerned in the composition of the black-and-white photographs.
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2009-08-25 Digigods
William Eggleston, Photographer, like many Microcinema releases, packs more punch into a half hour than comparable docs delivery in one or two hours. One of the great chroniclers of 20th Century American life, Eggleston stands apart from most contemporary photojournalists and photographers in that his work doesn't simply convey his vision of America, but it extracts the soul of America from people, situations, environments and icons that a lesser artist might never have seen. Captivating, rapturous, invigorating.
| 2009-07-28 Educational Media Reviews Online
By Louise Greene
It is interesting to watch William Eggleston work. Traveling the streets of his native Memphis, Tennessee, he sizes up a scene before him, homes in on something that catches his eye, takes one decisive shot and walks away. He explains that he cultivated this discipline early in his career to eliminate the difficulty of choosing the best image later.
Eggleston taught himself photography by reading Kodak manuals in the 1950s. Later he was greatly influenced by the Decisive Moment, a collection of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson whose work he compares with that of the great modern painters. Initially working in black and white, Eggleston soon began experimenting with color and by the mid-1960s was working entirely in that medium. At a time when it was associated primarily with advertising, he became a master of the dye-transfer printing process prized for its saturated colors that could be manipulated in a painterly fashion.
A landmark show of Eggleston’s pioneering work in color art photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York was mercilessly panned by critics and was reviewed in the New York Times as the “worst exhibition of 1976.” “I felt sorry for them,” Eggleston says of his critics, “they didn’t understand; it was their job to understand.”
From the outset, he has photographed the ordinary and the everyday: automobiles, billboards, interiors, people—strangers and loved ones alike—regarding them all as elements of composition, as form, motif, and color. Eggleston’s images are largely untitled and undated; he does not care to discuss his work, saying only that he photographs “life today.”
This all-too-short documentary is rich in imagery, a welcome window on the life and work of an enigmatic modern master. William Eggleston Photographer is recommended for libraries and programs with collections in photography, art and art history.
| 2009-06-02 DVD Talk
By John Wallis
Because of its very nature, the camera quickly became an easily used and learned device so it took a while for photography really began to take off and be regarded in the same light as painting and sculpture in the art world. Because of the mass production associated with photographic printing, it still doesn't garner the same extravagant price tags, thus less respect.
William Eggleston is regarded as one of the artists who helped advance the reputation of color photography within the art world. Memphis raised and currently residing, Eggleston's mid 70's book "William Eggleston's Guide" and his Museum of Modern Art showing simply titled "Color Photos" sparked a wave of bipolar critical reactions, some calling it revelatory others stating it was banal.
Taking his inspiration from Henri Cartier Bresson's landmark "The Decisive Moment," Eggleston's subjects are the everyday and the seemingly innocuous. A ceiling with an exposed light bulb. A trashy hotel room. Broken down shops. A ragged stretch of roadway. Unkempt yards. A rust-covered this. A weathered that. He famously said, "I am at war with the obvious." Elaborating (a bit) in this doc, he says describes his work to others as, "Life today. I don't know whether they believe or not or what that means."
Eggleston isn't one to deconstruct his work, his comments are simple and guarded. He doesn't take more than one photo of a certain object because he hates trying to pick from multiple shots. He only uses available light. He bluntly states the obvious about his choice of using the dye transfer process originally used for advertising and fashion prints- he liked it. Rather than be angry or hurt, he felt sorry for his critics because they didn't understand his work and it was their job to be more perceptive. He has dreams about photographs. Always in color.
I would normally say that Rainer Holzemer's short is way too lean, but I have seen Michael Almereyda's long form doc William Eggleston: In the Real World. That film, while it has more of the interesting rambling observational scenes and personal background detail than Photographer, is also a bit of a bore and, unable to penetrate its distant subject, began to manufacture drama and define the man through the boozy, seedier corners of his life. As such, Holzemer's Photographer keeps things at the right distance and would serve as a nice introductory glance at Eggleston for photo newbies.
Picture:The doc is presented in anamorphic widescreen. Pleasant enough pic, though, common enough for docs, the tech source details are on the excusable lower end.
Sound: Two audio options include English or German. Again, simple stuff, no complaints. Rote mix, plaintive scoring, and basic dialogue recording.
Extras: Squat. Well, you can choose between English and German version, but there is only mere seconds difference and, based on a quick scan, I think its due to some slightly longer end title cards on the German version.
Conclusion: At a mere twenty-seven minutes, William Eggleston: Photographer is about what you would expect, a cliff notes, wiki entry level doc. A skimming portrait giving those who don't know about the man just enough facts to feel they've learned something but a probing portrait this is not. Best served up as a rental or a purchase if you are a photography teacher with a library of artist profiles in your curriculum.
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