William Eggleston: Portraits
Publisher: Yale University Press/National Portrait Gallery, London
Publication Date: 2016
Text by Phillip Prodger
The eminent American photographer William Eggleston (b. 1939) was a pioneer in exploring the artistic potential of color photography. Eggleston made a name for himself with his eccentric, unexpected compositions of everyday life that were nonetheless rife with implied narrative, elevating the commonplace to art. This sumptuously illustrated book features Eggleston’s masterful portraits, including many familiar and beloved images as well as some previously unseen photographs from his long and productive career.
Many of Eggleston’s poetic photographs portray life in his home state of Tennessee, and the people he encountered there. Eggleston frequented the 1970s Memphis club scene, where he met, befriended, and photographed musicians such as fellow Southerners Alex Chilton and Ike Turner. He also photographed celebrities including Dennis Hopper, Walter Hopps, and Eudora Welty, and became a fixture of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, dating the Warhol protégé Viva. Over the past half century, he has created a powerful and enduring body of work featuring friends and family, musicians, artists, and strangers. In addition to the lavish reproductions of Eggleston’s portraits, this volume includes an essay and chronology, plus an interview with Eggleston and his close family members that gives new insights into his images and artistic process.
Details
Publisher: Yale University Press/National Portrait Gallery, London
Artist: William Eggleston
Contributors: Phillip Prodger
Publication Date: 2016
ISBN: 9780300222524
Retail: $50 | £29.95
Status: Not Available
Binding: Hardcover
Dimensions: 10 3/4 x 11 in (27.3 x 27.9 cm)
Pages: 184
Reproductions: 130 color and b&w
Artist and Contributors
William Eggleston
Over the course of nearly six decades, William Eggleston (b. 1939) has established a singular pictorial style that deftly combines vernacular subject matter with an innate and sophisticated understanding of color, form, and composition. His photographs transform the ordinary into distinctive, poetic images that eschew fixed meaning. One of the medium’s foremost practitioners to date, Eggleston’s work continues to exert an influence on contemporary visual culture at large.
Phillip Prodger
$50