Monday Masters: William Eggleston

Welcome to another episode of Monday Masters. This time it was me who had to nominate a Master of photography. I chose to investigate the great William Eggleston.

Eggleston is a true master of finding and capturing beauty and complexity in the mundane world – “I am at war with the obvious”  he said. His early inspirations and influences are Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson as he started out shooting black & white. However from 1965 he started experimenting with colour and since then he’s known as the godfather of American colour photography who truly revolutionised the art.

Favourite image:

I was looking through his work for a good hour, just marvelling at the images of nothingness, the beauty of dull and simple things caught on camera. Finally I settled on this photo above. There is a sense of reality yet it looks like like it could be a frame from a film, the mood is quite dark, a mysterious driver in the car, a black man ( maybe a butler ) seems to imitate the white man in body posture. Black and white jackets juxtapose nicely. The men wear worrying facial expressions which makes the viewer guess and wonder about their story and what happened or about to happen.

Additional articles on William Eggleston:

•  “Genious in colour” 
• “10 Lessons by William Eggleston“
• “Making a name, the Southern way“

If you have your personal favourite from W.Eggleston, make sure you share it with us by using #Mondaymasters on Twitter or in any other platform where you’re based. Leave a link in a comment and we’ll share your choice!

Thanks for reading and till very soon, take care!