William Eggleston

Early life and education

William Eggleston was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Sumner, Mississippi. His father was an engineer and his mother was the daughter of a prominent local judge. As a boy, Eggleston was introverted; he enjoyed playing the piano, drawing, and working with electronics. From an early age, he was also drawn to visual media and reportedly enjoyed buying postcards and cutting out pictures from magazines.

At the age of 15, Eggleston was sent to the boarding school, the Webb School. Eggleston later recalled few fond memories of the school, telling a reporter, "It had a kind of Spartan routine to 'build character'. I never knew what that was supposed to mean. It was so callous and dumb. It was the kind of place where it was considered effeminate to like music and painting." Eggleston was unusual among his peers in eschewing the traditional Southern male pursuits of hunting and sports, in favour of artistic pursuits and observation of the world. Nevertheless, Eggleston noted that he never felt like an outsider, telling a reported that " I never had the feeling that I didn't fit in...But probably I didn't."

Eggleston attended Vanderbilt University for a year, Delta State College for a semester, and the University of Mississippi for about five years, but did not complete any degree. Nonetheless, his interest in photography took root when a friend at Vanderbilt gave Eggleston a Leica camera. He was introduced to abstract expressionism at the university by visiting painter Tom Young.

Photographic work

1960s - discovering color photography

Eggleston's early photographic efforts were inspired by the work of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, and by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's book, The Decisive Moment. He first photographed in black-and-white. However, in 1965 and 1966, Eggleston began experimenting with color after being introduced to the format by William Christenberry. By the late 1960s, color transparency film was his dominant medium.

Eggleston's development as a photographer seems to have taken place in relative isolation from other artists. In an interview, John Szarkowski describes his first encounter with the young Eggleston in 1969 as being "absolutely out of the blue". After reviewing Eggleston's work (which he recalled as a suitcase full of "drugstore" color prints) Szarkowski prevailed upon the Photography Committee of MoMA to buy one of Eggleston's photographs.

In 1970, Christenberry introduced him to Walter Hopps (director of Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery). Hopps later reported being "stunned" by Eggleston's work: "I had never seen anything like it."

1970s

From 1973 to 1974, Eggleston taught at Harvard. During these years, whilst examining the price list of a photographic lab in Chicago, he discovered dye-transfer printing. As Eggleston later recalled: "It advertised 'from the cheapest to the ultimate print.' The ultimate print was a dye transfer. I went straight up there to look and everything I saw was commercial work like pictures of cigarette packs or perfume bottles but the color saturation and the quality of the ink were overwhelming. I couldn't wait to see what a plain Eggleston picture would look like with the same process. Every photograph I subsequently printed with the process seemed fantastic and each one seemed better than the previous one." The dye-transfer process resulted in some of Eggleston's most striking and famous work, such as his 1973 photograph The Red Ceiling, of which Eggleston said, "The Red Ceiling is so powerful, that in fact, I've never seen it reproduced on the page to my satisfaction. When you look at the dye it is like red blood that's wet on the wall... A little red is usually enough, but to work with an entire red surface was a challenge."

At Harvard, Eggleston prepared his first portfolio, entitled 14 Pictures (1974).

In 1976, Eggleston's work was exhibited at MoMA. Although this was over three decades after MoMA had mounted a solo exhibition of color photographs by Eliot Porter, and a decade after MoMA had exhibited color photographs by Ernst Haas, the tale that the Eggleston exhibition was MoMA's first exhibition of color photography is frequently repeated,and the 1976 show is regarded as a watershed moment in the history of photography, by marking "the acceptance of colour photography by the highest validating institution".

In 1976, Eggleston was introduced to Viva, the Andy Warhol "superstar", with whom he began a long relationship. During this period Eggleston became familiar with Andy Warhol's circle, a connection that may have helped foster Eggleston's idea of the "democratic camera", Mark Holborn suggests.

According to Philip Gefter from Art & Auction, "It is worth noting that Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, pioneers of color photography in the early 1970s, borrowed, consciously or not, from the photorealists. Their photographic interpretation of the American vernacular—gas stations, diners, parking lots—is foretold in photorealist paintings that preceded their pictures."

1980s

Eggleston also worked with filmmakers, photographing the set of John Huston's film Annie (1982) and documenting the making of David Byrne's film True Stories (1986).

1990s - present

Eggleston's mature work is characterized by its ordinary subject matter. As Eudora Welty noted in her introduction to The Democratic Forest, an Eggleston photograph might include "old tires, Dr. Pepper machines, discarded air-conditioners, vending machines, empty and dirty Coca-Cola bottles, torn posters, power poles and power wires, street barricades, one-way signs, detour signs, No Parking signs, parking meters, and palm trees crowding the same curb."

Eudora Welty suggests that Eggleston sees the complexity and beauty of the mundane world: "The extraordinary, compelling, honest, beautiful and unsparing photographs all have to do with the quality of our lives in the everyday world: they succeed in showing us the grain of the present, like the cross-section of a tree... They focus on the mundane world. But no subject is fuller of implications than the mundane world!" Mark Holborn, in his introduction to Ancient and Modern, writes about the dark undercurrent of these mundane scenes as viewed through Eggleston's lens: "[Eggleston's] subjects are, on the surface, the ordinary inhabitants and environs of suburban Memphis and Mississippi—friends, family, barbecues, back yards, a tricycle and the clutter of the mundane. The normality of these subjects is deceptive, for behind the images there is a sense of lurking danger." American artist Edward Ruscha said of Eggleston's work, "When you see a picture he's taken, you're stepping into some kind of jagged world that seems like Eggleston World."

Music

In 2017, an album of Eggleston's music was released, Musik. It comprises 13 "experimental electronic soundscapes", "often dramatic improvisations on compositions by Bach (his hero) and Handel as well as his singular takes on a Gilbert and Sullivan tune and the jazz standard On the Street Where You Live." Musik was made entirely on a 1980s Korg synthesiser, and recorded to floppy disks. The album was produced by Tom Lunt, and released on Secretly Canadian. In 2018, Áine O'Dwyer performed the music on a pipe organ at the Big Ears music festival in Knoxville, Tennessee.

He released two albums in total:

Musik (Secretly Canadian, 2017) – produced by Tom Lunt

512 (Secretly Canadian, 2023) – produced by Tom Lunt

Art market

In 2012, 39 of Eggleston's larger-format prints – 40 by 66 inches (100 by 170 cm) instead of the original format of 16 by 20 inches (41 by 51 cm) – sold for $5.9 million in an auction at Christie's to benefit the Eggleston Artistic Trust, an organisation dedicated to the preservation of the artist's work. The top lot, Untitled 1970, set a world auction record for a single print by the photographer at $578,000. New York art collector Jonathan Sobel subsequently filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Eggleston, alleging that the artist's decision to print and sell oversized versions of some of his famous images in an auction has diluted the rarity—and therefore the resale value—of the originals. The court dismissed the lawsuit.

Commercial use of images

Eggleston's photographs have been used as the cover of several musical albums including:

One of Eggleston's photographs is also the cover for the paperback edition of Ali Smith's novel The Accidental.

Film appearances

Documentary appearances

William Eggleston in the Real World (2005), by Michael Almereyda.

By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggleston (2007), directed by Vincent Gérard and Cédric Laty – selected for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2006.

The Colourful Mr. Eggleston (2009), directed by Jack Cocker and Reiner Holzemer – an episode of the Imagine (TV series) for BBC One.

The Source (2012), by Doug Aitken.

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2013), directed by Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori.

Movie and series appearances

Great Balls of Fire (1989), directed by Jim McBride – Eggleston plays Jerry Lee Lewis's father, Elmo Lewis.

Restless, x-ray technician (2011), as himself.

Today (TV Series) (episode dated 31 May 2011), as himself.

Sunday Morning (A Father and Daughter's Artistic Collaboration, 2016)

Awards

1974: Guggenheim Fellowship

1975: Photographer's Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts

1978: Survey Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, for a survey of Mississippi cotton farms using photography and color video

1989: "54 Master Photographers of 1960-1979" Award, Photographic Society of Japan

1995: Distinguished Achievement Award, University of Memphis

1998: Hasselblad Award, Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg, Sweden

2003: Special 150th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS), Royal Photographic Society, London

2004: Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Center of Photography (ICP)

2013: Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award, Sony World Photography Awards, World Photography Organisation, London.

Collections

Eggleston's work is held in the following public collections:

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

International Photography Hall of Fame, St.Louis, MO

Publications

William Eggleston's Guide. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1976. ISBN 978-0-87070-317-1.

Wedgwood Blue (1979)

Seven (1979)

Election Eve. New York City: Caldecot Chubb, 1977. Artist book. Two volumes. Edition of five copies. (a portfolio of photographs taken around Plains, Georgia, the rural seat of Jimmy Carter before the 1976 presidential election)

Göttingen: Steidl; 2017. ISBN 978-3-95829-266-6. One volume.

Morals of Vision. New York City: Caldecot Chubb, 1978. Artist book. Edition of fifteen copies.

Göttingen: Steidl; 2018. ISBN 978-3-95829-390-8.

Flowers. New York City: Caldecot Chubb, 1978. Artist book. Edition of fifteen copies.

Göttingen: Steidl; 2019. ISBN 978-3-95829-389-2.

Troubled Waters (1980)

The Louisiana Project (1980)

The Democratic Forest.

London: Secker & Warburg, 1989. With an introduction by Eudora Welty and an afterword by Eggleston and Mark Holborn.

New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 978-0-385266-51-2. With an introduction by Welty and an afterword by Eggleston and Mark Holborn.

Expanded edition. Göttingen: Steidl, 2015. ISBN 978-3-86930-792-3. Ten volume set, 1328 pages, 1010 photographs.