William Eggleston in the Tate Modern

If I had to quickly name a photographer I was inspired by it would undoubtedly be William Eggleston; the original pioneer of colour in art photography, and with a particular genius for taking brilliant pictures of and in unremarkable scenes and places. Eggleston is deceptive in making it look as though it should be easy to find a profound picture in anything and anywhere, but of course it isn't, especially with the sense that it is an approach that has to happen almost subconsciously.


As well as the Eggleston exhibition there was so much more to see in the Tate Modern (it was my first visit) that I left feeling quite overwhelmed by it and for a while after was experiencing a strange side effect of this in that almost everything seemed to be imbued with more artistic significance than usual. The journey back to Birmingham on a Virgin train cured that fairly quickly.