@@AlecSothTH-cam Worry not, perusers of Eggleston. Just head over to The Photobook Guy, where I believe the whole Democratic Forest box set is shown. Grab a six pack or your beverage of choice, settle in to a comfy seat and enjoy: th-cam.com/channels/zjx1mZr9gR_wjIQF4HvYyg.htmlvideos.
William Eggleston's Guide was so life changing for me. Indescribably so. Like a karate chop to my imagination. Thanks for this discussion. It was hugely interesting and smart.
Love that you use the words 'challenging' and 'difficult' where many others would simply saying boring. Photographers like Eggleston show us that nothing is boring, it's only a question of how, and what, one perceives.
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.” - John Cage
Dear Alec, just two days ago I have found out you have a youtube channel. I have binged instantly all your videos. I can ´t even described how I feel. Thank you, thank you. Please continue talking about the books from your collection. My best regards, Miroslav
This is gem! I feel like I’m taking an amazing class with an amazing teacher in my own home. Absolutely love learning your insights. I love the casual pacing and vibe. Thank you so much!
Thank you Alec. I was comfortably enjoying a morning coffee in my pjs with the sun on my back and found this. Yes, it was great. Led to another cup of coffee and a new inspiration for what can be photographed. John Szarkowski was such a master editor and poetic communicator of everything photography. Poetry. Sequencing. Less, not more. We are surrounded with more. 2020 has taught us that less is better than more. Unless we’re talking about good conversation and talks like this. Please keep them coming Alec, we need more.
This was a incredible video. Thank you for sharing your views and passion on Eggleston. It really made appreciate his work even more, especially the Guide.
I think this might be the best photography video I've ever seen on TH-cam. And I'm not exaggerating. Your insights are so on point. Not surprised considering the quality of your online masterclass, but can you do it for your whole library ? Pretty please ? :D
Once we understand his perspective, nothing is challenging, nothing is strange, nothing is hard to like and there’s no mistake into the sequence. There’s not even the desire of being curious of the other 10.000 photographs. It just makes sense and we see the flow appearing. It explains why it could be edited by someone else’s and why there’s so many books. The choice is not important. Our judgement and desire to find an explanation based on concept is misleading us to fail into the correct interpretation. Classifying the photographs into like « Interior » is really a mean joke but also giving a clue toward the solution. The edit without knowing how has done it after knowing who did it for the other ones, is also a clue. Same photographs, different edit is also a clue. The ennemies are our expectations, our déductives mind, our taste and them editing in a way that it is misleading but also genius way that makes his perspective blend into his highest standards photographs. Thank you for the inspiration and the ranting that is pure magnesium black fire starter for some minds. This is daunting and freeing at the time. Only making it ours will ease the feeling and tension.
Now I understand what kind of photographer I am a little more. I also like to photograph all sorts of what seems to be mundane items of the world around me and hate editing... 😬👍📸 Thank you for the talks I really enjoy them.
If this is called 'rambling', then ramble on! I enjoyed every minute of this Mr. Soth. It's a nice opportunity and insight to hear (and see) one master talking about another master.
Thank you for this, Alec! As someone who doesn't have a formal education in art or photography, videos like this are an invaluable resource to learn about the importance of editing and sequencing. Thoroughly enjoyed this and I hope you'll do more this year!
As a retired UPI photographer and an Alec Soth fan, I enjoyed this talk greatly! as the books were sometimes tough to understand, a lot was sorted out for me by Alec's words. Rambling and Democratic with the best photos acknowledged!...
Enthusiastic +1 to more of these, especially books that include narrative and discussion of photography or that are instructive. This talk is so good. Love it.
Dear Alec, thank you. Your voice is soothing. Thoughts after watching: what tells apart a challenging photograph from an unsuccessful one. What makes a photograph worth looking at.If pictures are random , what holds them together. And what is modern art without an idea to support it. Warmest greetings from Berlin
This is my first video I've ever watched like this, and my first time experiencing Eggleston. I am blown away. The end of your video had me drawn in. Eggleston's guide is a seriously beautiful and equally ugly. Gosh. The emotions I had no idea I would find in a photo book.
Alec, listening to you talk about your photography and other photographers is a pleasure. You always speaks with openness and sincerity. I want to hear you talk more about book editing, but also about photography in general. It is very important what you are doing, for everyone who is interested in photography.
Ha! Never thought I would skip a bit in an Alec Soth video - but I have Election Eve hidden away for my birthday and didn’t want any spoilers :) Thanks for creating this deep dive and sight!
Well done Alec, inspiring, informative and at minute 41:31 Wolfgang Tillmans photo, It's a bridge in Rome, maybe Ponte Garibaldi, in case anyone was wondering. Thanks for these great vlogs.
I really want to thank you for diving into and explaining the thought and ideas behind William Eggleston's work. For the past 25 years Eggleston has been one of those photographers I never bought into. I never understood the hype and I actually believed his rise to stardom was nothing more than a Pygmalion experiment set in motion by John Szarkowski to get the photo/art world to swallow crap and call it meatloaf. His use of color has flashes of brilliance but I could never get past the poor composition and unusual framing. In fact... I find his early black and white work to be some of my favorite. What I am trying to say is that my attitude has changed drastically. I am beginning to understand that the lesser photographs lay the groundwork and set up the more iconic images. For too long I believed that every image in a book had to be a grand slam (The Ansel Adams mindset) rather than a series of lesser images contributing to a greater story and narrative. Thank you for your insight
Wonderful exploration. Thanks much for sharing. Your musings about the implied meanings at the end of guide (1976) made me think of the relationship between Szarkowsky and Arbus.
It's all food for thought. Damn it is. The photos of Eggleston makes an impact in seeing our world, our surroundings. This books will leave no one indifferent. I like the series to be continued.
Hi, Alec. I am your fan who lives in Korea. I like your books so much. I felt your images as much as I could at the photo library today. I love that I can see you often on TH-cam. Instagram feels so hectic and crowded. I'll look forward to your move.
Thank you so much! For each and every word. You can't even image how much this means for us, people from such countries like Belarus, which don't have art photography education. And what's a happiness to have this democratic medium.
I bought a copy of democratic forest several years ago, only knowing his most famous works...I thought "I'll sit with it and I'm sure Ill get something from it" but it's always remained a bit of an enigma to me. its for sure hard to know how much consideration some of these images really deserve... Past some broader conceptional notion of the democratic.. some of the images...I just find myself wondering why? That all said I think about it often and I keep returning to it, great to hear your perspective and learn a bit of the history around the publishing of the book. Definitely love to see more of these. Though you spoke to this a bit its especially interesting to hear about your personal feelings, what images you find most meaningful and why.
Hi Alec, thanks for your time and the channel. Maybe the way to resolve Eggleston’s lack of editing and choice over his published photos is to remember Lacan’s reworking of Descartes‘s self-possessing I which has become central to the liberal fantasy of the subject. Lacan also never wrote most of his seminars and used his students' notes and published those, his main point was that the self is not entirely a master of its domain, even if you could speak about self and mastership at all. He said “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think.” (Complete quote: “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think. I am not whenever I am the plaything of my thought; I think of what I am where I do not think to think.” I guess what I’m trying to get at is: If Eggleston took all these pictures, and the editor selection and power over the book does not erase Eggleston here, maybe it reveals to us something even more essential to Eggleston’s work. After all, why should good work or good selection only represent our work? Why do we even take these photos? Isn’t that maybe that is what is democratic about the forest. IG: @boynative.jpg
Sometimes when if people are very proficient at something, it's hard for them to do it badly. I find it entertaining to imagine Mark Holborn trying really hard to make a democratic edit, but every time he ends up with ten volumes of neatly labeled projects. (Also, thank you Alec! This amazing. Please make more)
I enjoyed this a lot. I've always been interested in the repetitive nature of the democratic forest, I feel like there is definitely something to the absence of people that adds a surreal quality to the work I can't quite put my finger on. Would love to see more content like this
This video has to be what the internet is for. Sharing images is fine but exploring the way images work and how they work collectively is so important. Superb video .... more please. The Democratic education.
Thank you very much for this video. One of the things I like, is that you're sharing questions, and elaborating on these questions, rather than answers. Very fine food for thought, thank you.
It was interesting to hear how much you spoke in terms being moved bodily through the world by the photographs: now we're inside, now we're at his home, now we're in Miami, etc. These could be merely figures of speech, but I don't think so, especially given what you've said elsewhere about the final picture in The Americans. I've never really experienced looking at photographs in this way--ie. in the sense of having my self transported out to the places in the pictures. Really enjoyed the video. It would definitely be nice to see more.
I have to agree regarding William Eggleston’s Guide. It’s the only Eggleston book I have and it had such an impact on me the moment I opened it and still does every time I return to it. I always find it hard to square in my mind how he had a line into the human soul and yet seemed to live such a privileged life. Those 2 things don’t normally go together. Anyway, great analysis, I look forward to more.
William Eggleston is my favorite photographer and this is by far the most comprehensive video I have seen on his work and a very good introduction. It is also a democratic way to have access to these very expansive books.
Hi Alec! Thank you so much for sharing this video and your thoughts on Eggleston work. Im sure we all would appreciate more videos and discussions like this one.... Greetings from Chile!
I am a simple man and like the third version of DF most ;) this book made me go out and start taking photos so will always be more then just a book for me. Also I always knew that i would buy the 10 books version one day but I am a little intimidated by it now! Maybe it's still too early for me...I really appreciate this lecture - please share more of your insights on books with us! :)
This was amazing! Eggleston is my favourite photographer and you've made me see more things in his photos. I am fascinated by the question of how far the editing of the pictures is relevant to the understanding of his photos. Maybe one should not see his "democratic" approach as a "concept" (i.e. as opposed to photographing a certain subject matter) but really as the absense of a concept - I mean, he was not intellectual about his pictures and he didn't care much about the editing, both of which would make sense if he were persuing a concept. To me it seems that Eggleston's choices of what to shoot/what composition to use etc. were determined to a particulary large part by his subconscious. It seems like he would shoot something because it "spoke" to him in a way that he was probably not able to explain himself (and that would maybe only become more banal when attempted to be explained). What, to me, supports this thesis is that he shot very fast, almost passing by, and that he was very reluctant to talk about the meaning of his photos. If seen that way, the point is not that he shoots an oven, because it's as interesting a subject as anything else, but because that particular oven at that moment in that light corresponded to a diffuse, maybe subconscious, emotion that he had (that to you in the video translated to "suicidal"). To me that makes sense, because even his most "challenging" photographs, that don't have any quality that I can rationally grasp like beauty, surprise, interesting colour or subject matter etc., they still have an emotional quality that speaks to me. As far as editing is concerned, the job of the editor would not be to find something like "coherence" or "a story", but rather to replicate the experience of obliviously drifting through a day, with no sense of time, direction or purpose and no interference to the stream of consciousness - just like a child playing outside all day. (Which I guess is just what you said in your video.) Maybe the best way to present his photos would be either in the order they were taken on that day, or randomly (i.e. by a random generator on a screen, different every time you watch them). Or you could see the editing process as an attempt at psychoanalysis and try to find a subject matter in the potentially subconscious choices that went into the photos - which is maybe what happened in the case of the guide, where the editor distilled the subjct matter of boyhood and the mix of nostaliga and anxiety that goes with the transition from boyhood to adulthood. Anyway, I was inspired by your rambling to ramble on a bit. I'll get a coffee and look through the "Guide" now, I think.
when you talk about giving over control of the editing and how that might affect the book it made me think of Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel's photo book "Evidence" which is entirely comprised of appropriated images from archives. It isn't their photography but by editing the content they created art. In that regard we could think of The Democratic Forest as more of a work by Holborn than Eggleston.
Fantastic!!!!! You're so amazing in presenting Egglestone and using his vision as a troyan horse to explain what it'a all about when you take a picture. Thanks!
I have been taking your Magnum education series extremely slow simply not to consume them so fast and continue listening to you. This video has just made my day! Looking forward to seeing more of these "ramblings".
This is like ASMR for photographers
haha yes
Yo I was just about to say this
I had to look that up - you’re right!!
I only wish I’d found this 11months ago. The world is shitty with Covid again though, so
Thank you for sharing this. It’s truly appreciated.
I brought up this book in my photo class and now my photography teacher loves me. Ty Mr. Soth 😌
This was perfect. Though I think I missed the bit where you said "Thank you to Squarespace" and "please click like and subscribe". More please.
haha
everytime you said "don't worry, I won't show all of it" I was hoping you would show all of it. Thank you for this!
Haha, I should do the extended version
@@AlecSothTH-cam Worry not, perusers of Eggleston. Just head over to The Photobook Guy, where I believe the whole Democratic Forest box set is shown. Grab a six pack or your beverage of choice, settle in to a comfy seat and enjoy:
th-cam.com/channels/zjx1mZr9gR_wjIQF4HvYyg.htmlvideos.
Really enjoyed this, Alec. The TH-cam photography community is in dire need of this type of meaningful analysis. More please.
Check out THopper
Please don't stop doing this kind of videos
William Eggleston's Guide was so life changing for me. Indescribably so. Like a karate chop to my imagination. Thanks for this discussion. It was hugely interesting and smart.
It would be great if you could do an analysis on Lee Friedlander.
Letting you know: Yes please do more of this.
One of the first photo books I bought, second hand, before buying the other 450+ or so ;-) Highly enjoyed many of your talks so far!
Love that you use the words 'challenging' and 'difficult' where many others would simply saying boring. Photographers like Eggleston show us that nothing is boring, it's only a question of how, and what, one perceives.
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.” - John Cage
Zen: John Cage « 4:33 » [1952 - in 3 movements of silence with instruments at rest.lasting 4 minutes and 33 seconds]. Looking vs seeing: just one look
Agree, it's such an artistically mature and open minded way of viewing images. A good reminder for myself.
Thanx for letting us peaking into your mind :) ... More please !
Dear Alec, just two days ago I have found out you have a youtube channel. I have binged instantly all your videos. I can ´t even described how I feel. Thank you, thank you. Please continue talking about the books from your collection. My best regards, Miroslav
Will do, thanks Miroslav
This is gem! I feel like I’m taking an amazing class with an amazing teacher in my own home. Absolutely love learning your insights. I love the casual pacing and vibe. Thank you so much!
Thank you Alec. I was comfortably enjoying a morning coffee in my pjs with the sun on my back and found this. Yes, it was great. Led to another cup of coffee and a new inspiration for what can be photographed. John Szarkowski was such a master editor and poetic communicator of everything photography. Poetry. Sequencing. Less, not more. We are surrounded with more. 2020 has taught us that less is better than more. Unless we’re talking about good conversation and talks like this. Please keep them coming Alec, we need more.
This was a incredible video. Thank you for sharing your views and passion on Eggleston. It really made appreciate his work even more, especially the Guide.
I think this might be the best photography video I've ever seen on TH-cam. And I'm not exaggerating.
Your insights are so on point. Not surprised considering the quality of your online masterclass, but can you do it for your whole library ? Pretty please ? :D
Totally agree
Thank you for your time and for sharing your knowledge, analyse and thoughts. This was extremely interesting. Good food for thought!
Once we understand his perspective, nothing is challenging, nothing is strange, nothing is hard to like and there’s no mistake into the sequence. There’s not even the desire of being curious of the other 10.000 photographs. It just makes sense and we see the flow appearing. It explains why it could be edited by someone else’s and why there’s so many books. The choice is not important. Our judgement and desire to find an explanation based on concept is misleading us to fail into the correct interpretation. Classifying the photographs into like « Interior » is really a mean joke but also giving a clue toward the solution. The edit without knowing how has done it after knowing who did it for the other ones, is also a clue. Same photographs, different edit is also a clue. The ennemies are our expectations, our déductives mind, our taste and them editing in a way that it is misleading but also genius way that makes his perspective blend into his highest standards photographs. Thank you for the inspiration and the ranting that is pure magnesium black fire starter for some minds. This is daunting and freeing at the time. Only making it ours will ease the feeling and tension.
That was great!!! Thank you very much for this video!!!
It seems like I never fail to enjoy hearing you speak, Alec. Pls go on with this initiative of yours! Thx
Probably the best format I have seen on TH-cam ever. Could listing to you talking about photo books for ages. Thank you very much Alec!
Thanks so much Julien
Now I understand what kind of photographer I am a little more. I also like to photograph all sorts of what seems to be mundane items of the world around me and hate editing... 😬👍📸 Thank you for the talks I really enjoy them.
Keep going! We love that! Greetings from Greece
If this is called 'rambling', then ramble on! I enjoyed every minute of this Mr. Soth. It's a nice opportunity and insight to hear (and see) one master talking about another master.
Thank you for this, Alec! As someone who doesn't have a formal education in art or photography, videos like this are an invaluable resource to learn about the importance of editing and sequencing. Thoroughly enjoyed this and I hope you'll do more this year!
Thanks Andrew
Thank you Alec!!!!!!
Wow, thank you for all your videos! Please keep doing it. You are a huge inspiration!
As a retired UPI photographer and an Alec Soth fan, I enjoyed this talk greatly! as the books were sometimes tough to understand, a lot was sorted out for me by Alec's words. Rambling and Democratic with the best photos acknowledged!...
Enthusiastic +1 to more of these, especially books that include narrative and discussion of photography or that are instructive. This talk is so good. Love it.
i feel better after this video. Thank you a lot !
More rambling please. Thanks!
Please more and thanks.
It's so easy to get lost in the technologies and practices of photography. Thank you for reminding me to look at photographs. More, please.
Dear Alec, thank you. Your voice is soothing.
Thoughts after watching: what tells apart a challenging photograph from an unsuccessful one. What makes a photograph worth looking at.If pictures are random , what holds them together. And what is modern art without an idea to support it.
Warmest greetings from Berlin
A great master class. Thank you.
This is my first video I've ever watched like this, and my first time experiencing Eggleston. I am blown away. The end of your video had me drawn in. Eggleston's guide is a seriously beautiful and equally ugly. Gosh. The emotions I had no idea I would find in a photo book.
please still do this when the pandemic is over, your videos mean a lot.
This is great, thanks for sharing.
Alec, listening to you talk about your photography and other photographers is a pleasure. You always speaks with openness and sincerity. I want to hear you talk more about book editing, but also about photography in general. It is very important what you are doing, for everyone who is interested in photography.
Thank you
Thank you so much for these!
Thanks for that. That was great...
Really love this video.Please do more!
Love your rambling. Thanks Alec.
Please never stop these. It’s like educating me while in a meditative state. Thank you Alec
Thanks for sharing these ! Love your videos !
I didn't know you had a TH-cam channel and glad to be watching this video.
Love your vision about the images.
Thank you for sharing!
Mind blown. To borrow your words, this was seriously challenging. Thanks?
I could listen to more of that “rambling talk”... Thank you for the much appreciated time and lesson !
Ha! Never thought I would skip a bit in an Alec Soth video - but I have Election Eve hidden away for my birthday and didn’t want any spoilers :)
Thanks for creating this deep dive and sight!
Thank you alec.
Well done Alec, inspiring, informative and at minute 41:31 Wolfgang Tillmans photo, It's a bridge in Rome, maybe Ponte Garibaldi, in case anyone was wondering. Thanks for these great vlogs.
I absolutely loved this video alec! simple and captivating. thanks!
I really want to thank you for diving into and explaining the thought and ideas behind William Eggleston's work. For the past 25 years Eggleston has been one of those photographers I never bought into. I never understood the hype and I actually believed his rise to stardom was nothing more than a Pygmalion experiment set in motion by John Szarkowski to get the photo/art world to swallow crap and call it meatloaf. His use of color has flashes of brilliance but I could never get past the poor composition and unusual framing. In fact... I find his early black and white work to be some of my favorite. What I am trying to say is that my attitude has changed drastically. I am beginning to understand that the lesser photographs lay the groundwork and set up the more iconic images. For too long I believed that every image in a book had to be a grand slam (The Ansel Adams mindset) rather than a series of lesser images contributing to a greater story and narrative.
Thank you for your insight
Fantastic comment Garon. Allowing for an evolution in perspective is a gift.
we all needed this channel, thank you
This video is on the same level of blessing as David Lynch's weather forecasts. Best content on TH-cam.
Wonderful exploration. Thanks much for sharing. Your musings about the implied meanings at the end of guide (1976) made me think of the relationship between Szarkowsky and Arbus.
This is very amazing!
It's all food for thought. Damn it is. The photos of Eggleston makes an impact in seeing our world, our surroundings. This books will leave no one indifferent.
I like the series to be continued.
Hi, Alec. I am your fan who lives in Korea. I like your books so much. I felt your images as much as I could at the photo library today. I love that I can see you often on TH-cam. Instagram feels so hectic and crowded. I'll look forward to your move.
Hello Mr Soth, i come from belgium, and i appreciate your presentation. It was a dream, now it'a real. Merci beaucoup!
Thank you so much! For each and every word. You can't even image how much this means for us, people from such countries like Belarus, which don't have art photography education. And what's a happiness to have this democratic medium.
Thank you! Unfortunately I had to stop at 31:36 because I'm waiting Eggleston's Guide.
I bought a copy of democratic forest several years ago, only knowing his most famous works...I thought "I'll sit with it and I'm sure Ill get something from it" but it's always remained a bit of an enigma to me. its for sure hard to know how much consideration some of these images really deserve... Past some broader conceptional notion of the democratic.. some of the images...I just find myself wondering why? That all said I think about it often and I keep returning to it, great to hear your perspective and learn a bit of the history around the publishing of the book.
Definitely love to see more of these. Though you spoke to this a bit its especially interesting to hear about your personal feelings, what images you find most meaningful and why.
Hi Alec, thanks for your time and the channel. Maybe the way to resolve Eggleston’s lack of editing and choice over his published photos is to remember Lacan’s reworking of Descartes‘s self-possessing I which has become central to the liberal fantasy of the subject. Lacan also never wrote most of his seminars and used his students' notes and published those, his main point was that the self is not entirely a master of its domain, even if you could speak about self and mastership at all. He said “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think.” (Complete quote: “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think. I am not whenever I am the plaything of my thought; I think of what I am where I do not think to think.”
I guess what I’m trying to get at is: If Eggleston took all these pictures, and the editor selection and power over the book does not erase Eggleston here, maybe it reveals to us something even more essential to Eggleston’s work. After all, why should good work or good selection only represent our work? Why do we even take these photos? Isn’t that maybe that is what is democratic about the forest. IG: @boynative.jpg
Sometimes when if people are very proficient at something, it's hard for them to do it badly. I find it entertaining to imagine Mark Holborn trying really hard to make a democratic edit, but every time he ends up with ten volumes of neatly labeled projects.
(Also, thank you Alec! This amazing. Please make more)
Great video for an overactive mind at 12am
Hi Alec, Thank you so much for your time. I think this is wonderful, to you thinking about young people as well.
Very nice exposé. And indeed John Szarkowski made a great photographer even greater... We miss him.
This is like a Masterclass on William Eggleston! Thank you so much for this incredible video.
That was great! Please do more :)
Thank you for this - and the other videos you do. Inspiring. Helping me to learn how to see ... and think
I enjoyed this a lot. I've always been interested in the repetitive nature of the democratic forest, I feel like there is definitely something to the absence of people that adds a surreal quality to the work I can't quite put my finger on. Would love to see more content like this
This video has to be what the internet is for. Sharing images is fine but exploring the way images work and how they work collectively is so important. Superb video .... more please. The Democratic education.
"Democratic education" !
Loved this. I could listen to you talk about photo books all day. Thanks making this video.
Smart and insightful ! Thank you !
Thank you very much for this video. One of the things I like, is that you're sharing questions, and elaborating on these questions, rather than answers. Very fine food for thought, thank you.
It was interesting to hear how much you spoke in terms being moved bodily through the world by the photographs: now we're inside, now we're at his home, now we're in Miami, etc. These could be merely figures of speech, but I don't think so, especially given what you've said elsewhere about the final picture in The Americans. I've never really experienced looking at photographs in this way--ie. in the sense of having my self transported out to the places in the pictures.
Really enjoyed the video. It would definitely be nice to see more.
Thanks James
I have to agree regarding William Eggleston’s Guide. It’s the only Eggleston book I have and it had such an impact on me the moment I opened it and still does every time I return to it. I always find it hard to square in my mind how he had a line into the human soul and yet seemed to live such a privileged life. Those 2 things don’t normally go together. Anyway, great analysis, I look forward to more.
Please do more. Wonderful.
Thanks! More rambling, please.
So good. I very much appreciate how you say what you think but are kind about how you do it. That's a hugely undervalued skill these days. Ramble on!
William Eggleston is my favorite photographer and this is by far the most comprehensive video I have seen on his work and a very good introduction. It is also a democratic way to have access to these very expansive books.
amazing. keep rambling please
Loved it, thank you
Thank you very much for this video Mr.Soth♥️, beautiful photobook and wonderful commentary, I hope there will be many more🙏🏻Greetings from Italy 👋🏻
Thank you Alex, I love your work and your personality of how you talk, think and bring us your view in our homes.
I like it already...thank you Alec!
Hi Alec! Thank you so much for sharing this video and your thoughts on Eggleston work. Im sure we all would appreciate more videos and discussions like this one.... Greetings from Chile!
I am a simple man and like the third version of DF most ;) this book made me go out and start taking photos so will always be more then just a book for me. Also I always knew that i would buy the 10 books version one day but I am a little intimidated by it now! Maybe it's still too early for me...I really appreciate this lecture - please share more of your insights on books with us! :)
This was amazing! Eggleston is my favourite photographer and you've made me see more things in his photos. I am fascinated by the question of how far the editing of the pictures is relevant to the understanding of his photos. Maybe one should not see his "democratic" approach as a "concept" (i.e. as opposed to photographing a certain subject matter) but really as the absense of a concept - I mean, he was not intellectual about his pictures and he didn't care much about the editing, both of which would make sense if he were persuing a concept. To me it seems that Eggleston's choices of what to shoot/what composition to use etc. were determined to a particulary large part by his subconscious. It seems like he would shoot something because it "spoke" to him in a way that he was probably not able to explain himself (and that would maybe only become more banal when attempted to be explained). What, to me, supports this thesis is that he shot very fast, almost passing by, and that he was very reluctant to talk about the meaning of his photos. If seen that way, the point is not that he shoots an oven, because it's as interesting a subject as anything else, but because that particular oven at that moment in that light corresponded to a diffuse, maybe subconscious, emotion that he had (that to you in the video translated to "suicidal"). To me that makes sense, because even his most "challenging" photographs, that don't have any quality that I can rationally grasp like beauty, surprise, interesting colour or subject matter etc., they still have an emotional quality that speaks to me. As far as editing is concerned, the job of the editor would not be to find something like "coherence" or "a story", but rather to replicate the experience of obliviously drifting through a day, with no sense of time, direction or purpose and no interference to the stream of consciousness - just like a child playing outside all day. (Which I guess is just what you said in your video.) Maybe the best way to present his photos would be either in the order they were taken on that day, or randomly (i.e. by a random generator on a screen, different every time you watch them). Or you could see the editing process as an attempt at psychoanalysis and try to find a subject matter in the potentially subconscious choices that went into the photos - which is maybe what happened in the case of the guide, where the editor distilled the subjct matter of boyhood and the mix of nostaliga and anxiety that goes with the transition from boyhood to adulthood. Anyway, I was inspired by your rambling to ramble on a bit. I'll get a coffee and look through the "Guide" now, I think.
thanks for sharing!
when you talk about giving over control of the editing and how that might affect the book it made me think of Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel's photo book "Evidence" which is entirely comprised of appropriated images from archives. It isn't their photography but by editing the content they created art. In that regard we could think of The Democratic Forest as more of a work by Holborn than Eggleston.
Thanks for sharing
Fantastic!!!!! You're so amazing in presenting Egglestone and using his vision as a troyan horse to explain what it'a all about when you take a picture. Thanks!
Please keep doing this, I could listen to ramblings on photography all day.
I have been taking your Magnum education series extremely slow simply not to consume them so fast and continue listening to you. This video has just made my day! Looking forward to seeing more of these "ramblings".
Thank you Tugba
That was great, reminds me of my classes in artschool, the good ones. Thanks!
The first person to appear in the Democratic Forest, the kid in hat, is Eggleston's son, Winston -- as is the kid looking at the guns.