William Eggleston the Hasselblad Award [Hardcover]

William Eggleston (Author), Gunilla Knape (Author), Ute Eskildsen (Author), Lars Hall (Author), Hasselblad Center (Corporate Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Even before he was thrust into the spotlight in 1976 when he garnered a one-person show at New York's Museum of Modern Art, Eggelston was hailed as one of the pioneersAperhaps the pioneerAof color art photography. This survey, published on the occasion of his winning the prestigious Hasselblad Award, will confirm his reputation among admirers and win new converts to his deceptively straightforward photographs of the everyday. The book brings together 112 pictures made between 1967 and 1996 with an interview, a couple of short essays, and biographical and bibliographical appendixes. The subject matter here is almost exclusively his trademark images of the people, townscapes, and found still lifes of Memphis, TN, and northern Mississippi. The book's modest size (9.5" x 9.5"), simple presentation (small-format images are centered amid plenty of white space), and beautiful printing on matt paper appropriately evoke equal parts family album and gallery wall. Recommended for all libraries interested in the American photographic tradition and even for small libraries in the region.AEric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Scalo Publishers - Hasselblad Center; First Edition edition (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3908247985
• ISBN-13: 978-3908247982
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 9.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,960,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Intro to Eggleston's Work, November 29, 2000

By 

Lisa H. Wang - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Eggleston the Hasselblad Award (Hardcover)

William Eggleston's subjects are the blind spots of conventional photographers: puddles, people caught in careless moments neither heroic nor pathetic, nondescript interiors, toys which are neither inviting nor menacing. His photos are rare glimpses into the banal, the forgotten, the liminal: the spaces, moments and people we pass everyday without ever noticing. While many photographers highlight the exotic, the beautiful, the newsworthy or even the grotesque, Eggleston chose to represent and contemplate the 95% of life hidden beneath the surface of "photo-worthiness". He notices what happens in the "in-between" moments- a women's hair lit up by the sun as she stands at a snack stand, someone getting out of a car which has its brake lights still on. He accomplishes something very difficult. Rather than exoticize or beautify the banal, he tries to represent the banal as plainly as possible. This gives his images an amazing luminance, depth and sincerity hard to find in the starved one dimensionality and "obviousness" of most photographs. Most photos are easy. The photographer's intention and message is clearly read and the viewer is instantly gratified. Eggleston makes you work harder. Give this book to your National Geographic loving friends.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eggleston Rules In Color Photography, February 8, 2000

By 

Walt Opie (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: William Eggleston the Hasselblad Award (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent collection of Eggleston's overall body of work, and it is well worth having if you appreciate Eggleston's dictum -- "I am at war with the obvious". I was a bit dismayed to find that the image represented by Amazon.com above is not the actual cover art (man holding gun on bed), although the photo is in the book. The real cover shows a red-headed woman standing at an outside burger stand counter. The back cover shows frozen foods and ice trays stuffed into a freezer (very nice). The images in the book are smaller than in "2 1/4", but the reproduction value is overall excellent (although several images seem too dark to me).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A handsome addition to your Eggleston collection, June 10, 2000

By 

Tito Sierra - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Eggleston the Hasselblad Award (Hardcover)

The editor (Gunilla Knape) has done a fine job of representing some of Eggleston's best work, while also including photos that I believe are previously unpublished. Nice index of thumbnail images at the end.