The Red Ceiling (Greenwood, Mississippi) 1973

William Eggleston made this photograph, The Red Ceiling (Greenwood, Mississippi), at an unknown date. It’s interesting to imagine the making of this piece, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I really feel for Eggleston here. Imagine him, in that room, wrestling with the light, the angles, the oppressive redness. What was he thinking when he framed this shot? Did he feel trapped by the converging lines, or liberated by the stark geometry? The color is the first thing that hits you, right? That suffocating, almost violent red, thick like dried blood. And then the way the light bulb hangs there, a pale, ghostly counterpoint to the intensity of the walls. It’s like he's capturing a feeling more than a place. Eggleston, like so many artists, is in conversation with the past, present and future. It is a kind of embodied expression, where ambiguity reigns and multiple readings are not only possible, but welcomed.