William Eggleston
(William Eggleston: Untitled (Greenwood, Mississippi))
William Eggleston (U.S., b. 1939)
Untitled (Greenwood, Mississippi). 1973, printed 1980
Dye transfer print
11 3/4 x 17 7/8 in. image size
Copyright Eggleston Artistic Trust, Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York
Henry Art Gallery, Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company, 97.56
Everything about William Eggleston’s work has to do with color, color that is intense, pure, and super real. One of the first to take advantage of new color photography technologies in the early 1970s, Eggleston pushed the color in his work until it approached garishness. At a time when color was deemed inappropriate in the field of art photography, this pioneer of color photography challenged boundaries; as renowned curator John Szarkowski stated, his works “are fascinating partly because they contradict our expectations.”