Untitled
Photograph
1980 (published)
1980 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
William Eggleston (born 1939) changed the course of colour photography by translating the intense, super-real quality of colour transparencies into the saturated hues of dye transfer prints. Adopting processes previously used in advertising – the dye transfer technique was predominantly commercial at the time – Eggleston set a precedent for colour documentary and art photography that remains influential today. His work pinpoints the moment when colour began to be generally accepted as part of the language of art photography, and his subtle choices of camera positions loosened up photographers’ ideas about viewpoint.
In the early 1970s Eggleston began to photograph the realities of his own landscape in the American South. He finds ‘the uncommonness of the commonplace’ in ordinary scenes and places, as photographer Raymond Moore described it. Inspired by family snapshots, he focuses on the everyday and the overlooked in order to reveal them as remarkable.
In the early 1970s Eggleston began to photograph the realities of his own landscape in the American South. He finds ‘the uncommonness of the commonplace’ in ordinary scenes and places, as photographer Raymond Moore described it. Inspired by family snapshots, he focuses on the everyday and the overlooked in order to reveal them as remarkable.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Titles |
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| Materials and techniques | Dye transfer print |
| Brief description | Photograph, 'Untitled (blue pipes)', from the series Troubled Waters, by William Eggleston, published by Caldecott Chubb, dye transfer print, USA, 1980 |
| Physical description | A colour photograph depicting large, unassembled pipes. |
| Dimensions |
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| Copy number | 26/30 |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Copyright William Eggleston, courtesy of Cheim and Read |
| Historical context | William Eggleston's colour photographs pinpoint the moment when colour photography began to be generally accepted as part of the language of art photography. Adopting processes previously used to manipulate advertising images, Eggleston set the precedent for colour documentary and art photography of the last twenty years. Eggleston finds in places such as shopping centres and ordinary interiors, "the uncommonness of the commonplace", as photographer Raymond Moore described it. Inspired by the beauty of family snapshots, Eggleston looks at the everyday and the overlooked in order to reveal them as remarkable. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | William Eggleston (born 1939) changed the course of colour photography by translating the intense, super-real quality of colour transparencies into the saturated hues of dye transfer prints. Adopting processes previously used in advertising – the dye transfer technique was predominantly commercial at the time – Eggleston set a precedent for colour documentary and art photography that remains influential today. His work pinpoints the moment when colour began to be generally accepted as part of the language of art photography, and his subtle choices of camera positions loosened up photographers’ ideas about viewpoint. In the early 1970s Eggleston began to photograph the realities of his own landscape in the American South. He finds ‘the uncommonness of the commonplace’ in ordinary scenes and places, as photographer Raymond Moore described it. Inspired by family snapshots, he focuses on the everyday and the overlooked in order to reveal them as remarkable. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | plate 7 - series number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.2781-1990 |
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| Record created | July 24, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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