2812 photography
Shadow Geometry
William Eggleston tells a story about the time he met one of his few heroes, Henri Cartier-Bresson. In their brief encounter, HCB said, “You know, William, color is bullshit.” Eggleston’s response: “I just said, ‘Please excuse me,’ and left the table. I went to another table and partied.”
Had Pete shot this photograph in black-and-white, it would have worked–but not as well. That delicious arrowhead of blue, the delicate white whisper of cloud, the warmth of that stone, that almost impenetrable suggestive shadow; they give the photograph an emotional intensity that would have been lacking in pure black-and-white. It’s not that color has more vigor, it’s that…well.
Eggleston also said talking/writing about photographs is tricky. “Words and pictures don’t — they’re like two different animals. They don’t particularly like each other. The only thing one can do is really look at the damn things.”
So do that. Look at this. Look at it for a long time. You’ll either get it or you won’t.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
