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  Friday  May 26  2006    12: 35 AM

book recommendation



William Eggleston
by William Eggleston

This the the other book that has reminded me that I really like color and need to be shooting large format color. The others were by Joel Sternfeld and Stephen Shore. This was the best of the three Eggleston books my library had. It seems to be out of print and used ones start at over $200. If you are part of the Sno-Isle Libraries you are in luck. From Amazon:


Born in 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he currently resides, William Eggleston is considered one of America's most important photographers. His 1976 exhibition, Photographs by William Eggleston, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, marked a turning point in the history of photography: this was when color photography gained recognition as a medium of artistic expression. His intense and dramatic use of color and "democratic" approach to mundane subject matter continue to have an enormous impact on contemporary photographic practice. Published to accompany a French exhibition, this book brings together Eggleston's most significant works, from his first experiments in black-and-white to a series of photographs of Kyoto produced specifically for the exhibit. Drawing on public and private collections in Europe and the United States, the book includes vintage prints executed in the technique most characteristic of his work, the dye transfer process, as well as many lesser-known and previously unseen photographs. From Mississippi to Berlin, Kenya to Asia, Eggleston has tirelessly explored the wider world, transforming, through his camera, the ordinary into the extraordinary.

[more]

I have a couple of other books by Eggleston on order. The Sno-Isle Libraries let you order books they don't have. So far they've bought two for me. One on Harry Callahan which I will be posting about soon (incredible!) and Alec Soth. The Soth book just showed up in the system. Most of Eggleston is 35mm but the two books I've ordered are on his 2 1/4 square work and his 5x7 pieces. I'm hoping they come through on these two.