William Gedney, photographer

April 27, 2005 4:38 PM

What Was True. From the mid 1950s through the early 1980s, William Gedney (1932-1989) photographed throughout the United States, in India, and in Europe, and filling notebook after notebook with his observations. From the commerce of the street outside his Brooklyn apartment to the daily chores of unemployed coal miners, from the lifestyle of hippies in Haight-Ashbury to the sacred rituals of Hindu worshippers, Gedney was able to record the lives of others with clarity and poignancy. Gedney's America is a nation of averted eyes, and broken automobiles, and restlessness, a place Edward Hopper would recognize, but so, also, Walt Whitman.
posted by matteo (11 comments total)

Pigpen!
posted by fixedgear at 4:44 PM on April 27, 2005

What a beautifully composed FPP.
posted by digaman at 5:06 PM on April 27, 2005

Is there a smiley for "awed into silence by the depth of a single man's creative output"?

I mean, shit, just this one hi-res image of John Cage picking a mushroom is enough to make this post great. Goddamn!
posted by gwint at 5:07 PM on April 27, 2005

Finally, a photography site that gives you nice-sized images. Loved those India shots. Thanks, matteo!
posted by squirrel at 6:46 PM on April 27, 2005

Fabulous, matteo - thanks. Some of his work is like finding a time capsule. And what digaman said.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:14 PM on April 27, 2005

What an awesome FPP! The Kentucky images are really amazing. I'm ashamed that I've never heard of Gedney's work! Thanks for this.
posted by photoslob at 7:54 PM on April 27, 2005

This is as powerful and transcendent as anything Dorothea Lange ever did. I don't understand why Gedney's work (especially the Kentucky series) isn't better known.
posted by Chrischris at 8:17 PM on April 27, 2005

Through the lens of certain religious cosmologies, one might see - in Gedney - the Godhead or divine impulse reconstituting itself.....

From an infinite constellation of shining fragments.
posted by troutfishing at 9:34 PM on April 27, 2005

Awesome as usual, matteo. Thanks!
posted by dobbs at 9:46 PM on April 27, 2005

Beautiful. The India shots were marvellous; but it's all good. Many thanks, matteo!
posted by carter at 6:34 AM on April 28, 2005

After reading this, I found a used copy of Gedney's book on Abebooks. It came to day, and it's wonderful.
posted by carter at 5:28 PM on May 5, 2005