William Eggleston Livres

Exposition 20 novembre 2001 - 24 février 2002, Paris Fondation

The negatives for the Los Alamos Project were created between 1965 and 1974 and archived in two boxes, Box #17 and Box #83. In the nineties, these boxes were moved from Memphis to New York, where William Eggleston, Walter Hopps, Caldecot Chubb, and Winston Eggleston edited the photographs into five portfolio boxes of dye transfer prints, with an edition of five and three sets of artist proofs. Thirteen additional images, not included in the portfolios, were printed as individual dye-transfer prints known as the “cousins” of the project. Walter Hopps initially envisioned an exhibition, but it never materialized, leading him to return Box #17 to Memphis while Box #83 was forgotten. After Hopps’ death, his widow discovered Box #83 in his office, which was then returned to the Eggleston Artistic Trust. The negatives in Box #83 had been organized by Hopps and documented in a handmade book titled Lost and Found Los Alamos. In late 2011, William Eggleston III and Marc Holborn reviewed the complete set of negatives for a final edit, culminating in 2012 with the three-volume set titled Los Alamos Revisited. The sequence was composed by Thomas Weski, who previously edited the Scalo book Los Alamos. This new edition includes the long-lost negatives from Box #83, completing the collection. William Eggleston, born in 1939 in Memphis, continues to live and work there.

"Los Alamos" presents a series of photos that have never before been shown, yet it contains a blueprint of Eggleston's aesthetics, his subtle use of subdued color hues, the casual elegance of his trenchant observations of the mysteries of the mundane.

Containing 150 recent photographs by the American photographer William Eggleston, this volume provides a sequence of images which form an almost autobiographic narrative, beginning with pictures of Eggleston's home territory in the Mississippi Delta and radiating out across the USA.

At War with the Obvious: Photographs by William Eggleston at The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents the work of this idiosyncratic artist, whose influences are drawn from disparate if surprisingly complementary sources—from Walker Evans and Henri Cartier-Bresson in photography to Bach and late Baroque music. Many of Eggleston’s most recognized photographs are lush studies of the social and physical landscape found in the Mississippi delta region that is his home

In April 1979, a book of 15 color photographs by William Eggleston was published in a limited edition of twenty. The photographs were taken from the second chapter of an unpublished larger work entitled Wedgewood Blue . Alongside his publications Chromes (2011), Los Alamos Revisited (2012) and the forthcoming Democratic Forest (2014) and Election Eve (2016), all documenting Eggleston's life work, At Zenith constitutes a calm and experimental intermezzo from Eggleston's familiar loudness and intensity of colors. The photographer pointed his camera at the sky to focus on the clouds rolling by.

A box containing William Eggleston’s earliest black and white photography was discovered in the archives of the William Eggleston Artistic Trust in Memphis. These photos were later exhibited at Cheim & Read gallery in New York and sold. This book reunites these images, showcasing the artistic beginnings of a pioneer in contemporary photography. In the late 1950s, Eggleston began capturing suburban Memphis with high-speed 35 mm black and white film, developing a style and motifs that would influence his iconic color work, including diners, supermarkets, and domestic interiors. Fifty years later, all plates in this edition have been scanned from vintage prints developed by Eggleston himself. In the mid-1960s, after discovering color film, he quickly embraced it, stating, “And by God, it worked. Just overnight.” Although he abandoned black and white photography, its influence on his practice remains significant. This new edition follows the sold-out first print-run. Born in Memphis in 1939, Eggleston is a key figure in contemporary American photography, instrumental in establishing color photography as an artistic medium. He has published extensively and exhibited widely, with previous works including Eggleston’s Paris (2009) and Before Color (2010) from Steidl.

William Eggleston, known as the "father of color photography," has spent nearly sixty years developing a unique style that merges everyday subjects with a deep appreciation for color, form, and composition. His approach challenges conventional interpretations, as he aims to elevate the mundane to striking, poetic visuals. Eggleston's work invites viewers to engage with the ambiguity of his images, reflecting his belief in the complexity of the ordinary.

Zu Beginn der Fotogeschichte war der Himmel grau und das Diktum der künstlerischen Fotografie und des Fotojournalismus lange Zeit schwarzweiß. Obwohl bereits 1935 der erste breit einsetzbare Diapositivfilm auf den Markt kam, blieb die Farbfotografie der Werbewelt vorbehalten und galt als kommerziell, vulgär und nicht-künstlerisch. Ungeachtet dessen entdeckten ab den 1960er Jahren immer mehr Fotograf: innen mit der New Color Photography andere und neue Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten. Das über fünf Jahrzehnte umfassende Werk von William Eggleston hat wesentlich zu diesem Paradigmenwechsel beigetragen. Neben Stephen Shore, Saul Leiter und Evelyn Hofer erkannte Eggleston früh die unverwechselbare Kraft der Farbe und ihre einzigartige Qualität zur Abbildung des Alltäglichen. Zumal Eggleston keineswegs vorgab, im Beiläufigen das Schöne bloßzulegen. Stattdessen überzog er das Banale mit einem Moment des Unheimlichen und Rätselhaften: Gerade weil Farbe der menschlichen Wahrnehmung so nahekommt, musste Eggleston die eigene Umgebung mittels der Fotografie immer wieder überprüfen – als seien ihm selbst die gefrorenen Lebensmittel im Eisfach nicht geheuer, nicht die Ketchup-Flaschen auf der Theke, und schon gar nicht die Waffen, die wie zufällig in so vielen seiner Bilder auftauchen.