William Eggleston the Hasselblad Award 1998

by William Eggleston, Gunilla Knape, Ute Eskildsen

Book by William Eggleston, Gunilla Knape, Ute Eskildsen, Lars Hall

Genres: Photography, Art

128 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 1999

About the author

Born in Memphis and raised in Sumner, Mississippi, William Eggleston was, even in youth, more interested in art and observing the world around him than in the more popular southern boyhood pursuits of hunting and sports. While he dabbled in obtaining an education at a succession of colleges including Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, he became interested in the work of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and began taking black and white photographs with the Leica camera a friend had given him. He began experimenting with color photography in 1965. Although processes for color photography had existed in various forms since the turn of the century, at that time it still was not considered a medium for fine art, and was mostly relegated to the world of advertising.

Eggleston was the first photographer to have a solo show of color prints at the MoMA in 1976. Accompanied by the release of the book William Eggleston's Guide, it was a watershed moment in the history of photography.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

He does very odd things with composition, things I admire even if I barely understand them. Frequently something looks like a detail from a wider shot, there are things half-occupying the edges. Or the POV is dramatically low, giving the clutter of shabby life a height and grandeur. Landscapes and interiors usually empty, occasionally capturing a lone individual, rarely grabbing people but often charging them with all manner of tensions. Color, as I understand, is the big deal here, and it is interesting how often the contrasts are little or none, monochromatic interiors, greygreenbrown landscapes, red ceilings or barns. A casual glance through could easily arouse disgust at the common or low subject matter, but there is a good deal of beauty in ugly things, just as the reverse is true, if you are willing to let the eye linger and forget the familiarity you brought with you.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of photographer Vivian Maier, I was aware that some of her work was compared to William Eggleston, so I felt it was time for me to check his photographs out. To be honest, I wasn't impressed at first, for I know I have the prejudice of liking "pretty" pictures better. However, the more time I spent looking at the pictures, the more intrigued I became. There were some photos that I understood there must have been a certain lighting or vibe that caught his interest. I also liked a window into life a few decades in the past, as it brought back memories of my childhood.

Photos that stood out to me: gas station with attendant (pg 7), tidy subdivision (pg 9), men in parking lot with woman (pg 11), dining room (pg 26), three young women (pg 32), dressed up woman (pg 34), family on front porch (pg 44), grandmother & grandson (pg 62), soda fountain (pg 86), old man with gun (pg 97), two friends on sofa (pg 101), naked man-perhaps at a whorehouse (pg 108), ceiling fan with sexual diagrams in the corner (pg 109, also front cover), motel in a desert (pg 121), living room (pg 131), yellow & purple flower field (pg 137), two men next to car (pg 139), and tree branches that look like a stick figure dancing (pg 140). With these kinds of photo collections, you can't help but wonder about the people and what they were doing at the moment the picture was taken.

[Diann Blakely]

Eggleston, the first color photographer to be given a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art, isn't often associated with Social Realists or Southern folk artists. Moreover, in the revealing interview that prefaces his 1998 Hasselblad Award catalogue, Eggleston says that he doesn't particularly like being referred to as a Southerner. Which is understandable: Labels too often allow critics, viewers, and/or readers to duck the difficult task of engaging an artist on his or her own terms. Still, Eggleston's best subjects are as Southern as Graceland--scenes of which he has photographed brilliantly. Furthermore, he was one of the first to exploit the "folk art" genre of photography: the snapshot.

Today there's an entire school of "snapshot photography." But Eggleston was taking pictures of the everyday South--"photographing democratically," he says--long before most; and the Hasselblad catalogue indicates that his "war with the obvious" continues with more wins than losses. Nonetheless, the tension of the book's best plates, which nearly snap and waver on the page, dissipates when the photographer wanders too far from home, as Thomas Weski points out in his helpful introduction. Eggleston's pictures of the Berlin Wall, for example, are accomplished but far from expressing the aesthetic and psychological claustrophobia of one of the book's opening plates: a mirrored wall at Graceland that bears an unctuous oil portrait of Presley.

The cover photograph of Eggleston's previous book, ANCIENT AND MODERN, depicts a violently tacky graveside ornament--such ornaments comprise an entire subgenre of Southern folk art. The red, white, and blue satin marker, a simulacrum of the American flag, stands jacklighted by the photographer's flash. The shiny fabric glares so brightly, in fact, that it takes a moment to notice the affixed bouquet of blood-colored roses. That moment is a victory in Eggleston's war with the obvious, and so is the next moment, when the viewer connects the photograph with its title--"Memphis, 1983"--and another layer of meaning comes into focus: Eggleston's photograph somehow vibrates painfully and angrily with Martin Luther King's assassination.

(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE)

[Bruce Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first introduction to Eggleston's photographs, which I enjoyed. The lighting and bright colors of the photos contrasted with the sparseness and desolation of most of the subject matter. The pictures from the 1970's were my favorites and remind me much of the photos taken by elderly family friends (the Romes) who on vacations accidentally captured many of the same stark, bare scenes with their kodachrome slides -one day I will assemble these for viewing!!

[Ilya Scheidwasser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've seen Eggleston here and there and had a mind to dive into his work more heavily. This volume contains a number of introductory discussions regarding Eggleston's style and his place in the history of American photography, which were interesting to a point, but got a bit tedious. As for the photos themselves, there are definitely some good ones here, although they are printed somewhat small given the size of the pages, and they do not have any context (date, location, etc.) until the very end of the book. It was a nice little sampling, but I came away a bit disappointed.

[Sennen Ashford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest photographer to ever live

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best published collections of his work.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a very good, survey-like, catalog of Eggleston's works.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!

[Emilio PÆsano · Rating 4 out of 5]

great, if spare, selection of his photos... worth hunting down