William Eggleston is an American photographer who is most known for the use of color photography as an art form. Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1939, Eggleston enjoyed drawing, playing piano and had a fond interest in cutting out pictures in magazines, showing early signs of his love of visual media (Artnet). In his early years of education, he attended boarding school in his teenage years. He then went off to study art at various colleges for 6 years, with one of them being the University of Mississippi (Artnet). However, he failed to receive a degree. While there, Eggleston became interested in photography and later shaped the perspective of it in our world today. More specifically, Eggleston’s love for photography came about when a friend at Vanderbilt gave him a Leica camera. His early photographic efforts were inspired by the works of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson’s book, The Decisive Moment, where he started to gain experience in black and white photography (Wikipedia).

 

 

 

 

In his works, Eggleston explores the theme of appreciating the beauty of everyday tasks, objects, and people. Starting in his early black and white photography days, such as Untitled (1960-65) and Untitled (late 1960s), he plays with negative space and poses to illustrate this concept. Once Eggleston discovered color photography, this theme became more apparent to the public. For example, in Untitled (Memphis) (1965) and Untitled (Biloxi, Mississippi) (1974), both of the subjects are bathed in warm sunlight while doing mundane chores, alluding to the glorification of everyday life. In Untitled (Memphis) (1970), a rusted tricycle is placed in the middle of the picture plane in a suburban-like environment and taken at a low to-the-ground angle, depicting the beauty and nostalgia of everyday objects (The Art Story). Other works that he created were popularized due to the extreme color choices, such as The Red Ceiling (1973). In this piece, an image of a lightbulb in a vibrant, red room is shown and is widely recognized as the album cover for Radio City (1974) by the Memphis band, Big Star (Wikipedia).

 

 

 

 

Now, William Eggleston still lives in Memphis, where he works and continues to take pictures of everyday life. Eggleston’s artworks have been housed in numerous museums across the nation, including the MoMA and The Met (The Art Story). He is considered to be a prolific artist, taking over 1.5 million photographs during his lifetime and taking the title of the father of color photography.

 

 

References

• “William Eggleston.” Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/william-eggleston/biography. 
• “William Eggleston: Photography, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/eggleston-william/. 
• “William Eggleston.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Eggleston.  
• “William Eggleston Untitled c. 1975.” Art Blart, https://artblart.com/tag/william-eggleston-untitled-c-1975/.

 

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HoiBD8m7f6T86crpSYm1CF6fQm3Xd0A8SMw7BKhcfgo/edit?usp=sharing