EGGLESTON, WILLIAM (1939) American
His exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, William
Eggleston’s Guide, featuring lush dye-transfer prints of the
banal made in the American South ushered in the acceptance
of color photography as a fine art. By means of a sophisticated
snapshot aesthetic, Eggleston uses color to describe scenes
in psychological dimensions that makes everyday events
look unusual. Initially criticized for making vulgar images of
insignificant subjects, such as a light bulb or the inside of an
oven, he promoted the notion that anything could be photographed
by democratically filling the dull existential void
of American culture with color. Th e skewed angles of his
“shotgun” pictures, not using the camera’s viewfinder, helped
to open the traditional “photographer’s eye” in terms of how
images are composed and what is acceptable subject matter.
In turn, this sparked questions about the interpretation and
response viewers have to images, and what the role of makers
is in educating their audience.
Publications
Eggleston, W. (2003). Los Alamos. New York. Scalo.
Eggleston, W. (1976). William Eggleston’s Guide. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Information collected from: Focal Encylopedia of Photography
Copyright © 2009 Focal Press, Inc.
Image © Eggleston Artist Trust. All rights reserved.
His exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, William
Eggleston’s Guide, featuring lush dye-transfer prints of the
banal made in the American South ushered in the acceptance
of color photography as a fine art. By means of a sophisticated
snapshot aesthetic, Eggleston uses color to describe scenes
in psychological dimensions that makes everyday events
look unusual. Initially criticized for making vulgar images of
insignificant subjects, such as a light bulb or the inside of an
oven, he promoted the notion that anything could be photographed
by democratically filling the dull existential void
of American culture with color. Th e skewed angles of his
“shotgun” pictures, not using the camera’s viewfinder, helped
to open the traditional “photographer’s eye” in terms of how
images are composed and what is acceptable subject matter.
In turn, this sparked questions about the interpretation and
response viewers have to images, and what the role of makers
is in educating their audience.
Publications
Eggleston, W. (2003). Los Alamos. New York. Scalo.
Eggleston, W. (1976). William Eggleston’s Guide. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Information collected from: Focal Encylopedia of Photography
Copyright © 2009 Focal Press, Inc.
Image © Eggleston Artist Trust. All rights reserved.