EGGLESTON, William - Porträts

Personal statement by William EGGLESTON

"I want to make a picture that could stand on its own, regardless of what it was a picture of. I've never been a bit interested in the fact that this was a picture of a blues musician or a street corner or something." (William EGGLESTON)

Background information

"The photographs by US-American photographer William EGGLESTON are special for their eccentric, unexpected compositions, playfulness, implied narrative and, above all, his portrayals of people. Over the past half-century he has created a powerful and enduring body of work featuring friends and family, musicians, artists and others. He frequented the 1970s Memphis club scene, developing friendships and getting to know musicians, including Ike Turner, Alex Chilton and others. His fascination with the nightclub culture resulted in the experimental video 'Stranded in Canton' (2005), which chronicles visits to bars in Memphis, Mississippi, and New Orleans. At the same time he encountered and photographed the likes of Dennis Hopper, Eudora Welty and Walter Hopps - and for a brief moment William EGGLESTON even entered the Warhol Factory scene, dating the Warhol protege, Viva.
The photobook 'William EGGLESTON: Portraits' accompanied the first exhibition to explore his pictures of people. Works included span his career from the 1950s through to his well-known portraits of the 1970s to the present day.

Content

The catalog volume 'Portraits' on the pictures of people by William EGGLESTON includes ninety portraits in beautifully reproduced exhibition plates, an essay, a chronology as well as a series of revealing interviews with him and his close family members, conducted in Memphis by exhibition curator Phillip Prodger." (© National Portrait Gallery, 2016)

About US-american photographer William EGGLESTON (b.1939)

Photo books by, with works by and on the work of William EGGLESTON