“Each one [of my photographs], to me, is equal, or I didn’t take it to begin with . . . I never think about it beforehand. When I get there, something happens and in a split second the picture emerges.”
—William Eggleston
Provenance
Sotheby's, New York, 30 March 2009, lot 178
Literature
Eggleston, The Outlands, Volume 1, cover, p. 175 (variant)
William Eggleston's highly saturated, vivid images, predominantly capturing the American South, highlight the beauty and lush diversity in the unassuming everyday. Although influenced by legends of street photography Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eggleston broke away from traditional black and white photography and started experimenting with color in the late 1960s.
At the time, color photography was widely associated with the commercial rather than fine art — something that Eggleston sought to change. His 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Color Photographs, fundamentally shifted how color photography was viewed within an art context, ushering in institutional acceptance and helping to ensure Eggleston's significant legacy in the history of photography.
1972 Dye transfer print from Dust Bells Vol. I, printed 2004. 11 1/2 x 17 1/4 in. (29.2 x 43.8 cm) Signed in ink in the margin; dated, numbered 5/15 in an unidentified hand in ink and Eggleston Artistic Trust copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the verso.