William Eggleston, the Pioneer of Color Photography

At 77, William Eggleston is mischievous, beguiling, puzzling and fascinating, all in nearly equal measure. He has been called a legend and an icon. He is frequently referred to as “the godfather of color photography,” even though the sensational 1976 solo exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art that established him as such was widely panned at the time. “Critics and so forth obviously weren’t really looking at this stuff,” he says today. “Didn’t bother me a bit. I laughed at ’em.”

I mention that for decades people have studied his compositions, the geometry of his images, which seem to grow more complex the more you look. But this sort of analysis of his work strikes Eggleston as “nonsense.” Photography is second nature to him — intuitive not analytical. “I know they’re there, the angles and compositions,” he says. “Every little minute thing works with every other one there. All of these images are composed. They’re little paintings to me.” 

Photo by Eggleston of Eudora Welty’s kitchen, 1983 

From “William Eggleston, the Pioneer of Color Photography” by Augusten Burroughs for The New York Times, 2016; Photo courtesy of the Eggleston Artistic Trust

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