Mamiyaroid 5
If you love color photography you probably love William Eggleston’s work. I don’t even really like to talk about it because it nearly borders on cliche these days. If you look closely, his work is everywhere, touching the things you love.
A quick list off the top of my head:
Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers
Alex Chilton, Like Flies on Sherbert (Shit)
Big Star, the band, and the record, Radio City
Dana Spiotta, “Innocents and Others”
Sigrid Nunez, “The Last of Her Kind”
And that’s just off the top of my head and in my books and record collection.
This week I made the little leaps in my head from the records and books that used his images, to the idea of cliche, how people can take something unique to an artist and turn it into a cliche or meme, and with each replication, each homage, something gets chipped away from the bright light of the original. Even if I got a great sun-streaming-through-the-glass-of-coke-on-the-airplane shot, would I post it on instagram? Could I do it without a sense of irony or self-deprecation? Probably not.
But I have some Sx-70 film, and I’ve wanted to get my hands on his Sx-70 book. Supposedly these were the only Sx-70 prints he made. Sure.
The light’s been nice, easing into autumn, and I decided to try to make some Eggleston-like Sx-70 prints without slipping into outright cliche, while keeping it within my orbit of obsessions.
And here’s the thing about memory. When I took this photo my mind said: LIKE FLIES ON SHERBERT. Except when I got home and looked at the album cover, all that remained in common with my image was the blue background.
sx-70 film, mamiyaroid camera setup. (Underexposed. I forgot I was shooting iso160 film and had the light meter set to 640.)
sx-70 film, mamiyaroid camera set up
sx-70 film, mamiyaroid camera set up
sx-70, mamiyaroid camera set up (I bought this bottle of soda even though I can’t drink it, and took it to Wendy’s for a photo shoot.)
sx-70, mamiyaroid camera set up, Another thing I noticed besides the American vernacular of soda bottles and fast food, was the color green. Yes, he’s known for reds, and at his show at the MET, At War With the Obvious, there was a quote of his, “I think red is a very difficult color to work with. I don’t know why. It’s as if red is at war with all the other colors,” but green pops up and once I saw the lamp’s shadow against that green, I knew I had my shot.
As usual, I will have more photos from this series on instagram, @mamiyaroid
Until next time…
Adalena
I love to receive comments and questions about photography and cameras!
My email: adalenakavanagh@gmail.com
Instagram: @mamiyaroid (instant/film) @5redpandas (personal)
Twitter: @adalenakavanagh
Also, if you’re thinking of buying Polaroid film for the first time, here is my referral code, which gets you 10% off, and I get some reward points.
Original photography prints: adalenakavanagh.bigcartel.com (I change out the shop every month of so. If you see something you like, let me know, I’m happy to make you a print.)
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-Adalena Kavanagh