Focus Features

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)