William Eggleston

‘Genius in colour’, William Eggleston has a very distinctive style combining ordinary, everyday subjects with strong colours, giving a rather surreal result. Influenced by the endless amateur snaps being developed in an industrial photo lab, Eggleston draws the viewer in with images which at first appear to be almost snapshots but something in the lines, the angles and especially the colours gives these images an edge. Whether photographing a bike or an elderly lady, Eggleston’s slightly surreal images evoke a tension akin to that of a Hammer horror film.

Eggleston first started working with colour film in 1965 after almost a decade of using monochrome. The photographer thrived at the introduction of this medium as his selective use of colours complement the awkward angles already used to create that Eggleston tension; this is an artist with a clearly defined voice. John Szarkowski, of New York’s Museum of Modern Art is quoted as saying that Eggleston had ‘learned to see in colour’.

Eggleston wasn’t always so celebrated; his exhibition, entitled 'Color Photographs' appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976 and was cited as being the most hated exhibition of the year. One critic suggested that the photographs 'would be unacceptable if submitted by one of my basic photography students'. Hilton Kramer's review in The New York Times finished his critique by saying: 'The truth is, these pictures belong to the world of snapshot chic.’

Looking deeper into Eggleston’s images, it is clear that although, true to snapshot style, the main focus is in the centre; the edges of these images contain details of people and objects which give additional meaning.

William Eggleston was also criticized for using expensive dye-transfer technique for prints of such everyday objects. Eggleston uses this process as it enables him to control the colours individually, exaggerating them in order to achieve desired results.