william eggleston, paris

by Various

For photographers, the city of Paris must constitute a genre of its own (alongside "nudes" or "botanical"), so perennially photogenic are its streets, skylines, storefronts and people. Here, William Eggleston--"The Father of Color Photography"--offers a brilliant, unusual take on Paris today, with depictions that completely revitalize our sense of this most picturesque of cities. Eggleston spent three years working throughout different seasons, to craft images that reveal surprising and rarely-seen facets of the city, as one might expect from the lens of a photographer most associated with the American South. Eggleston constructs with color--the brilliant yellow of a shop front, the intense blue of a street sign, the carnival colors on a merry-go-round--and of course with little gems of detail--plastic flowers in a shop window, a plastic bag or a woman's supersaturated red shoes--locating effects that are simultaneously rustic and cosmopolitan, glamorous and gritty, everyday and extraordinary. The first print appearance of this new work, Paris is published for Eggleston's exhibition at Paris's Fondation Cartier, and also includes paintings juxtaposed with the photographs that inspired them. His Paris is a triumphant successor to Eugène Atget and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Genres: Photography, Art

186 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

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Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Eggleston's work. He maybe the best living photographer at this moment, but this book is a touch of a disappointment for me. The photos themselves are great, but the book looks too digital to me, and I am not sure if Eggleston is using digital camera or process, but there is a flatness to the images that I don't care for.

Compared to his other books, the images really grab your attention, and the colors you can almost taste the reds, blues, etc. But this book, which is on Paris of course, perhaps my most favorite visual city in the world -just comes off flat. And that flatness really bothers me for some reason.

Still, I would get this book because i think anything he puts out is of great interest - and this is all new work (at least to me).

[Davy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gotta say, I didn't really enjoy this one at all. The highlight is the inclusion of Eggleston's colorful, lively marker doodles -- he was onto something with those. But the photographs are pitiful -- the result, I can only guess, of Eggleston just "dialing it in" for an uninspiring commission. The subject matter is utterly banal -- but this time there's no compositional Eggleston magic to subvert or transcend it. The pictures are lifeless abstractions, mostly derived from contemporary advertising posters, with the occasional (technically speaking, quite poor) street scene. Give it a glimpse for the drawings, but don't expect much of what you're used to.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunate. Disappointing. In the parlance of our times - meh. A dud. Better luck next time. Buy 5x7 or Los Alamos instead.