Photo: Maude Schuyler Clay

William Eggleston, West
28th Street, New York City

Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1939, William Eggleston grew up to become one of the contemporary art worlds’ most celebrated and influential photographers. This fall the Whitney Museum of America Art recognizes his unique influence in a major exhibition of his work with “William Eggleston: Democratic Camera—Photographs and Video, 1961-2008.” His dispassionate shots of everyday, ordinary, even mundane moments, often shot in the South – a ceiling fan, a soda machine, an empty rural intersection at dawn – eschew conventional notions of composition and content, instead emphasizing elements of color and light to see the world in new and beautiful ways. His exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1976, “Color Photographs,” was the first one-man show of color photography in the history of the museum, and he is considered a pioneer in the establishment of color photography as a respected artistic medium. He is particularly known for employing the dye-transfer printing process to capture the rich, precise colors of his prints.

Eggleston’s approach towards commonplace subject matter is encapsulated by the title of his 1989 book The Democratic Forest as well as the catalogue (Democratic Camera) for his Whitney retrospective. Other books include William Eggleston’s Guide (1974) and William Eggleston’s Graceland (1984). Eggleston is also a film and videomaker whose works include Stranded in Canton (2008).

William Eggleston, "Untitled," 1975 (left) and Gone with the Wind (right)

Five Films that Influenced William Eggleston's Photography

1

Mrs. Miniver

It’s done in an elegant, serious way, and quite emotional. Very touching. [Buy]

2

A Midsummer's Night's Dream

William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt’s 1935 one. It's just perfect, and the Erich Korngold score is half the reason. [Buy]

3

North By Northwest

It's hard to escape Hitchcock. Rebecca—every moment is magnificent. The 39 Steps, Vertigo. But it was in North By Northwest that I first discovered how well color can be used. [Buy]

4

Gone With The Wind

Technicolor was used just perfectly in it. It's like a dye transfer. Hell, it is a dye-transfer. Tutwiler [Mississippi] was about five miles from [my childhood home of] Sumner, and we'd go once a week or so when I was a boy. Movies were never a visual influence on me. I never really go to them, even now. There was an art theater in Memphis that Rosa and I went to in the mid-’60s to see European and black-and-white movies. I am sure there must have been some in color but I can't drum one up. [Buy]

5

A Face In the Crowd

Elia Kazan’s 1957 drama. Patricia O'Neal was great, and Andy Griffith... it was the greatest work he ever did. I'm sorry he went off to do comedy. [Buy]