夏休みの終わりに

(English follows after Japanese)

　短い夏休みの最終日、原美術館で「ウィリアム・エグルストン：パリ‐京都」展を観ました。私が初めてエグルストンの写真を観た時の印象は、「なぜだか目が離せない。けどちょっと怖い。」です。大学院進学のためイギリスに行ってすぐ、ロンドンのヘイワードギャラリーで観た展覧会でした。アメリカ南部の郊外を切り取った作品は、色合いのせいなのか、人の視線のせいなのか、何か不穏な事が起こる前触れのような、不安な気持ちにさせられるものでした。それでもじっと見ていたい夢の風景のような写真ばかりだった事を覚えています。

　今回、原美術館で展示されていた作品はパリと京都で取られたものが中心でした。非連続的な写真をゆっくり眺めて思い至ったのは、彼の実直な視点です。どこで撮っても、どう切り取ってもそれはどこまでもエグルストンの風景です。どうやって彼が写真を撮っているのかとても気になっていたところ、ミュージアムショップで、「William Eggleston Photographer」というDVDを見つけて、買って帰りました。生まれ育ったテネシー州を拠点に70代の今も、ハンディなカメラでさっと撮る様子がとてもダンディでした。

　面白いことに、最後に彼は夢の話をしました。「しばしば写真的な夢を見る、しかもそれはカラーなんだ。」と語っていました。私が彼の作品に感じた思いは、彼の夢の風景に入り込んでしまったような不安だったのかもしれません。しかし不思議な事に、それはどこまでも私を幻惑するのです。

On the last day of summer holiday

On the last day of the short summer holiday, I went to see the exhibition called "William Eggleston: Paris - Kyoto" in Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. It was right after I've arrived in UK to start my MA when I saw Eggleston's exhibition very first. It was in Hayward Gallery in London. Many of the works are taken in the south of the States. I didn't understand why, though, I felt uneasy as something wrong would happen from his works. It might be because of colours or the eyes of the people in the photos.... However, I did not able to stop keeping my eyes on them.

In this exhibition at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, the works are mainly from Paris and Kyoto. I have kept my steps in the rooms looking at the works. They looked non lineir, though, I felt his steady glance that captured the scenes. Whenever, or wherever he takes his photos, the scenes become "his scenes". I was so interested in how he actually takes photos, then I found the DVD called "William Eggleston Photographer" at the museum shop, so I bought it. He is in his seventies, and is still based in Tennessee where he has grown up. He looked so dandy that holding a handy camera and when he found something, he takes it very quickly, Interestingly, in the last, he talked about his dream, saying "Often, very often, have these called photographic dream...Always in colour. The uneasiness that I felt at Hayward Gallery might be the arkwardness that I jumped into his dream. But mysteriously, I am mesmerised and it seems to continue forever.