“Old tyres, Dr Pepper machines, discarded air-
conditioners, vending machines, empty and
dirty Coca-Cola bottles, torn posters, power
poles and power wires, street barricades, one-way
signs, detour signs, No Parking signs, parking meters
and palm trees crowding the same curb.”
Eggleston has
a unique ability to find beauty, and
striking displays of color, in ordinary
scenes. A dog trotting toward the camera; a
Moose lodge; a woman standing by a rural road;
a row of country mailboxes; a convenience
store; the lobby of a Krystal fast-food restaurant –
all of these ordinary scenes take on new
significance in the rich colors of Eggleston’s
photographs. Eudora Welty suggests that
Eggleston sees the complexity and beauty
of the mundane world:
“The extraordinary,
compelling, honest, beautiful and unsparing
photographs all have to do with the quality
of our lives in the ongoing world: they succeed
in showing us the grain of the present, like the
cross-section of a tree.”
Taken from the Wikipedia entry for photographer William Eggleston. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.
Verbatim Poetry 