William Eggleston | TateShots

Known for his rich and complex images of the American South, William Eggleston is the godfather of colour photography.
Though his images record a particular place at a certain point in time, Eggleston is not interested in their documentary qualities. Instead, when asked what he is photographing, Eggleston simply answers 'Life today'. Curator Simon Baker explores the work of this master and pioneer of colour in fine art photography, on display at Tate Modern. 'William Eggleston never takes multiple shots of the same image' says Baker, instead he takes 'just the right picture at just the right moment'.

[@nocommentnoname1111]

To me his work lives on the edges of everyday snapshot world and genius. One minute I may say what?, the other wow (on the same image)!

[@TheChrisrg]

I love Eggleston's America.

[@mikebaginy8731]

Fabulous photos, what a wonderful exhibit!

[@jasonlee8156]

Looking at his photos must give some older people a nostalgic feeling. For a seemingly idyllic time/place.

[@7kurisu]

i wanted to see more!

[@dukewinward]

How many good photos are taken everyday now with everyone being a photographer of selfies and documentaries, not much chance of standing out anymore or making a living unless you are a photographer of weddings and divorces. Most artists create a few good works and the rest of their works are recipe based on previous successes for putting food on the table.

[@BackFocus11]

Excellent!

[@nickfanzo]

A genius, master of composition and color. Many Instagram wrapped imitators try to be him, but they all fail.

[@durango-CODEBUILDER]

Cant believe I missed this...

[@Phi0794]

William Eggleston has never been arsed about all the pretentious talk, he basically just takes photographs.

[@stuartwray6175]

He doesn't intellectualise - Brings to mind a writer like Raymond Chandler or film maker such as Alfred Hitchcock. Nonetheless what they make is unique and inspired.

[@Igaluit]

I didn't know people were still doing dye transfers.

[@huntrrams]

How do you achieve the colors of Eggleston? The only slide film available for this is Ektachrome

[@mikutai6395]

Ektar 100 is pretty close. Eggleston used color negative such as kodacolor

[@lordoftheflings]

proves that you don't need to print HUGE to have your work hanging in a museum.

[@nickfanzo]

All of Edward Weston’s prints are contacts 8x10

[@synthesaurus]

How the heck did the guys back in the day shoot 64 iso film indoors?

[@user-ti9zc1xv2b]

flashed

[@BOBMAN1980]

What's annoying about watching videos like this--where curators and academics gush on about the genius of the moment--is you know they would've chafed at the very same individuals and their work(s) had they encountered them as unknowns. True story. . . . .

[@melikatalks7676]

BOBMAN1980 So true. But to be fair, it's normal for critics to have to catch up to the artist. Rarely do they ever encounter an actual visionary who is ahead of his time, most of the time they presume it's just bad art. Criticism could be just like art itself. There are a lot of good artists but few truly exceptional ones. There are also a lot of good critics, but few can see beyond what others do.

[@handsomefingers]

Of course, because the very same photographer usually produce tons of non-extraordinary images too.

[@capnrob97]

I have a bunch of pics on Flickr, add more everyday. I wonder after I am long gone if someone will discover my dormant account and will read into my ordinary pics some deep meaning of what I was trying to convey when all I was doing was snapping photos.

[@cameraman655]

In the art world, they are often referred to as the Gatekeepers...keeping out the riff-raff, at least until they are discovered, then they gush..

[@thewastedmuseum]

what kind of a camera did he use?

[@leplasti]

He has a HUGE collection of rangefinder cameras (mostly Leicas).

[@gohumberto]

I truly hate it when people ask me that, because it wasn't the camera that got up at 6am to walk the streets of a city. It tells me that people don't understand photography at all, and think that a new camera will fix their problems. Every modern camera is capable of superb images. The question you should be asking is, "What alarm clock did you use?". because getting out of bed to take photos is more important than the camera under your bed.

[@stephengreico2810]

Eggleston was great no doubt. Love his work But that film stocks and the time/place he shot did him huge favors. You just can't reproduce what he did in today's times.

[@Hariharanchrisb]

eggleston handles a different form of aesthetics..

[@nickfanzo]

It’s a myth he only takes one shoot of every image, there is proof that this isn’t true. For example the airplane window photo with the glass, there are multiple negatives of that scene and you can see he was trying different approaches to that picture. Artists love to make myths about themselves. He also shot more color negative film than slides.

[@ibrake4butterflies]

.....but where is the photoshopping......no photoshop???......he had to...what....get his exposures just right?...so...uh...