an appropriation or an homage? Pt. 5

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Jeff Wall's The Storyteller may have been the photograph that got me thinking several years ago about the problem of the "pretty picture." Others have articulated it far better in words than I am able, but it comes down to being truthful about the state of the world today. Which this entire site, devoted to the Man Made Wilderness, is all about.

I see that William Eggleston's "democratic" photographs are on display at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and will travel next year. His influence is everywhere, is profound. Without it, would digital cameras have bothered to come into existence? His vision is that nothing in the landscape is more worthy of being photographed than anything else.

While I still find it difficult to let go of the ideal view of the landscape, Eggleston's viewpoint is much more obvious to me as I look around at my world and try to find a wilderness that we can live in.