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William Eggleston throws the audience for a loop with a show at Cheim and Read. While everybody is familiar with his richly colored, blissfully mundane photography of the American South here Eggleston is showing large black & white portraits. It’s a body of work made in 1973 in nightclubs where he photographed with a hand-held view camera and a strobe. The exquisite detail afforded by this set-up is at odds with the offhand gestures of his subjects. His subjects preen and pose in the way people casually approached relate to a camera. In an ironic twist the dress and grooming of his subjects (such as aviator sunglasses, handlebar mustaches, and printed shirts) is similar to what one would find at a Williamsburg bar any night of the week. The original however feels much less despicable.

- Asha Schechter [Thursday, September 1st, 2005]

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