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William Eggleston (American, b.1939) is a photographer who was instrumental in making color photography an acceptable and revered form of art, worthy of gallery display. Born and raised in the South, Eggleston was the son of an engineer and a local judge. He spent his childhood drawing, playing piano, and tinkering with electronics. Eggleston found great joy in cutting out the pictures in magazines and purchasing post cards, and had a love of visual media. He attended boarding school in his teens, followed by a year at Vanderbilt University. He continued on to Delta State College, which held his interest for only one semester. H
William Eggleston (American, b.1939) is a photographer who was instrumental in making color photography an acceptable and revered form of art, worthy of gallery display. Born and raised in the South, Eggleston was the son of an engineer and a local judge. He spent his childhood drawing, playing piano, and tinkering with electronics. Eggleston found great joy in cutting out the pictures in magazines and purchasing post cards, and had a love of visual media. He attended boarding school in his teens, followed by a year at Vanderbilt University. He continued on to Delta State College, which held his interest for only one semester. He studied for five years at the University of Mississippi, but still failed to produce a degree. While there, Eggleston became interested in photography.
His work with color photography started in 1965, when he met William Christenberry (American, b.1936). In 1960, Eggleston settled on color transparency as one of the main mediums he would use throughout his career. In 1973 and 1974, Eggleston was a teacher at Harvard University. He discovered the dye-transfer process while teaching, and through experimenting, he developed work, such as The Red Ceiling in 1973. In 1976, Eggleston's work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Throughout the years that followed, Eggleston published a number of portfolios, including Election Eve in 1976, The Morals of Vision in 1978, and Troubled Waters in 1980. In addition, Eggleston photographed the sets of several films, such as Annie and True Stories, in 1986. He also completed several record album covers for groups, such as Big Star, Alex Chilton, Primal Scream, and Christopher Idylls. In 2003, Eggleston published Los Alamos, which contained his work from 1966 to 1974. He has also made a few media appearances, including a cameo in the movie Great Balls of Fire and a Marc Jacobs print ad. Eggleston currently lives and works in Memphis, TN
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