Untitled from Jamaica Botanical

Date

1978

Creator

When Eggleston visited Jamaica in 1978, he was compelled by the fauna of the place. This is a photograph from his Jamaica Botanical series, an editioned portfolio of 20 chromogenic prints, produced and published by the artist. Apart from one contextual image of a patio, the photographs present tropical vegetation from varied distance and perspectives, as if seen on a walk through a garden. Individually the images are like casual snapshots, but together they convey the environment and the interrelationship of elements. Most of them are similar in their diagonal compositions. Eggleston would seem to have taken this photograph standing over a croton plant, aiming his camera down; another image in the series represents the vivid brush from the side, before a deep landscape. Here, passages of color and tone plot strong diagonal forms from upper left to lower right. Eggleston focused on the middle ground, so that the nearest projecting leaves and the background foliage blur slightly. The colored edges of the croton leaves, and the patterns of yellow and red around their central veins, delineate a dynamic abstract design of line and hue. The effect is like an agitated pot of colored spaghetti, swirling as it boils. Its visual impact is similar to gestural painting, with calligraphic lines and scumbled passages. Color is a key, integral component of the design. from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)