William Eggleston [Hardcover]

Herve Chandes (Author), William Eggleston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

Born in 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he still lives, William Eggleston is widely considered one of America's most important photographers. His 1976 one-man exhibition, Photographs by William Eggleston, at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, marked a turning point in the history of photography: this was when colour photography gained recognition as a medium of artistic expression. His intense, dramatic use of colour and 'democratic' approach to mundane subject matter continue to have an enormous impact on contemporary photographic practice. Published to accompany the exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, this volume brings together Eggleston's most significant works, from his first experiments in black and white to a series of photographs of Kyoto produced specifically for this exhibit. Drawing on public and private collections in Europe and the United States, this book contains vintage prints executed in the technique most characteristic of his work, the dye transfer process, as well as many lesser-known and previously unseen photographs. From Mississippi to Berlin, Kenya to Asia, Eggleston has tirelessly explored the wider world, transforming, through his camera, the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Assembled by art critic Chandes, this volume was published to accompany a French exhibition of the work of American photographer William Eggleston. The photographs he produces sanctify the mundane while honoring and holding forever the inconsequential moment. This large, word-free collection contains some of his best old (1970s) and new photography. The idea that life, land, cars, small buildings, and clusters of people are assembled in bunches at random, in the accidental reality of a time and place, seen and framed and preserved by a photographer, helps all of us grasp the value of looking and trying to understand the world's visual chaos. When Eggleston photographs a '65 Buick that inexplicably ran up a concrete drainage wall only to be partially crushed and wedged under a highway overpass, we think, "That's amazing." But his expanded photo of the wreck through a wide-angle lens shows nearby bell-bottomed onlookers placed in no order with no apparent purpose but detached from the wreck by the onset of the immediate boredom common to the ordinary moment. Eggleston is the master of the moment. The only complaint here is that every one of the 146 photographs reproduced is titled Untitled. We need to know the words the photographer attaches to some of these preserved situations. Recommended.
David Bryant, New Canaan Lib., CT
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Herve Chandes is director of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500974969
• ISBN-13: 978-0500974964
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 11.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,523,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good overview of Eggleston's work, January 10, 2011

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A photographer (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Eggleston (Hardcover)

It's odd that no one has reviewed this book on Amazon. While it is currently out of print and very expensive to buy, it has been around for almost 10 years and much of that time it was affordable and available. At the current prices, it is definitely not a good value. But it is a good survey of Eggleston's older work with a few newer (at the time) pictures thrown in for good measure. It was published as part of an exhibition in Paris in 2001/2002.

To make it brief, the book contains lesser known photographs dating back to Eggleston's black and white days as well as many of his well known works. The choices are good. To those of us who know Eggleston's works, it is familiar. To those unfamiliar with his work, this would be a good overview except for the current pricing of the book. The reproduction of the photographs is pretty good. The big problem with the presentation is the ghastly decision to present a few individual photographs across the gutter. This pretty much destroys the composition of the affected photographs. Thankfully, this is only done to a few photographs. There is a very short interview with Eggleston at the end of the book. It doesn't really give much insight into his work other than noting the cameras and lenses he was using at the time and his statement that he doesn't have any favorite individual photographs.

I cannot recommend this book at the current prices (in excess of $100 for a good used copy as of this writing) unless you're a die-hard Eggleston completist. As time goes by, more and more of Eggleston's work is being presented in exhibitions and publication. The photos in this book will probably be printed in other books, making this volume redundant. Yet this book is a good one and is recommended if you find it at a reasonable price.