“I knew that red was the most difficult color to work with,” said Eggleston. “To work with an entire red surface was a challenge. . . . I don’t know of any totally red pictures, except in advertising. The photograph is still powerful. It shocks you every time.”
Time Travelers: Photographs from the Gayle Greenhill Collection, Oct 31, 2025–Feb 16, 2026
Gallery label from Artist’s Choice: Arthur Jafa—Less Is Morbid , November 19, 2025–July 5, 2026
Eggleston photographed everyday life in Tennessee and Mississippi, where he lived. His images capture scenes with a directness that causes them to appear strange or uncanny. Jafa notes the way Eggleston’s Southern Gothic images picture “some very sleazy shit”: “The misbegotten nature of American society often gets normalized. But in Eggleston’s work, it gets denormalized.”
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William Eggleston
American, born 1939 217 works onlineHow does one come to be hailed as the “father” of color photography ? A scion of the Mississippi Delta’s affluent plantation gentry, William Eggleston is often portrayed as both dandy and scoundrel.
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