EGGLESTON’S BEAUTIFUL DRIVES

WILLIAM EGGLESTON

Extraordinary color and brilliant composition lift the vernacular of the road to the level of masterpiece in legendary photographer William Eggleston’s photos.

From a muddy farm truck to bright curling highway diner neon, from a kitsch donut-topped drive-through to rough sweet roadside wildflowers, Eggleston captured the raw, frank essence of life on the road in the 1960’s and 1970’s, coaxing and emphasizing improbable beauty from the soul of each scene.

Considered one of the most influential photographers of all time, Eggleston is widely credited as turning the photography world on to color. He was the first to elevate color photos to fine art status. 

With aesthetic irony, Eggleston focuses on the trivia and banality of everyday life, only to produce exquisite rich sophisticated images.

While his subjects span a broader range, Eggleston found visual love and fodder as he traveled down the highways and roads of the American South.

The “Lost and Found” images, part of Eggleston’s “Los Alamos” series, chronicle road trips he took with gallery and museum director Walter Hopps, traveling back and forth between Memphis and the West Coast.

Eggleston’s “Election Eve” photos include scenes along the road, from Memphis to Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains, GA, during the 1976 presidential election.

Eggleston first developed an interest in photography as a student at University of Mississippi, when a friend gave him a Leica camera. He was initially inspired by the works of photographers Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Eggleston began experimenting with color in 1965, after being introduced to the medium by artist and photographer William Christenberry. By the late 1960’s color transparency film became Eggleston's dominant medium.

In 1973, while Eggleston was teaching at Harvard, he discovered dye-transfer printing. He was immediately impressed with the high level of color saturation as well is the exceptional ink quality and he began to use the process in his works.

Eggleston’s roadside subjects include diner signs, one-way signs, detour signs, and "No Parking" signs,  as well as power poles, wires, street barricades, parking meters, lots, palm trees, and random people on their way. But his main subject is really “color.”

Eggleston has continued to inspire new generation of photographers, as well as filmmakers.

Aperture, the preeminent not-for-profit fine art photography foundation, just honored Eggleston at its 2016 Awards gala earlier this week, with a tribute entitled “Dear Bill.”

Eggleston is represented by David Zwirner Gallery. Check out its upcoming Eggleston exhibition: “Selected Works from ‘The Democratic Forest’” (October 27 - December 17, 2016).

Read more about Beautiful Drives in Beautiful Drives Through Americana Now, Drive The Road To Beauty Now and Get Lost In A Beautiful Corn Maze Now.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled (Baby Doll Cadillac).”
2. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust.
3. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled.”
4. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust.
5. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled.” From the series “Dust Bells, Vol. I.”
6. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled (Mississippi).”
7. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Near Greenwood, Mississippi.”
8. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled, Mississippi, (Torch Cafe Billboard).”
9. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled.”
10. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. Jackson Hole Diner, Astoria, New York.
11. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Untitled (Near Minter City and Glendora, Mississippi).”
12. Image: Courtesy of Aperture Foundation. “Listening for Eggleston.”
13. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. ”Field of Daisies and Lupins.”
14. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust.
15. Image: by BN App - Download now!
16. Image: by William Eggleston. Courtesy of Eggleston Artistic Trust. “Red Car.” New Dyes Series.”