A tricycle: Mark Holborn describes his subjects as the ordinary things of suburban Memphis and Mississippi: friends, family, barbecues, back yards, a tricycle and the clutter of the mundane.
The icon is an original FilmAnalysis drawing of an ordinary object, not a copy of any photograph. It is a way into the photographer’s work; the explanation follows the sources below.
Published by MoMA alongside Eggleston’s 1976 solo exhibition, this book includes an introduction by John Szarkowski. Its colour photographs of everyday subjects prompted debate about colour photography’s place in the museum.
The democratic eye, for which anything is worth photographing; 150 colour pictures.
First-edition dates only; reprints, translations and revised editions are on each book's page. What autobiographies and interviews say is the photographer's own account, not independently verified fact.
Life and books in timeVerified record Dots are verified years: birth and death, first editions, awards. Positions are whole years; reprints and translations are not drawn. A dot opens the book or the award.The same as a table
An editorial summary of the body of work by FilmAnalysis: interpretation, not historical record.
In 1976 MoMA exhibited his colour photographs, to considerable controversy: a red ceiling, a tricycle, a freezer, all rendered in dye-transfer prints of saturated, oddly exact colour. The subject is never the thing but the colour relationships around it.
Colour
Saturated, warm, with precise relationships between two or three hues.
Composition
Deadpan, often low or odd angles; one object given full attention.
Light
Southern daylight, fluorescent interiors, dusk.
Tone
Medium contrast, clean highlights.
Texture
Fine-grained, sharp, print-like.
Mood
Democratic, uncanny, still.
Recurring motifs
An ordinary object made monumental by colour
Red against green or blue, exactly balanced
Low angles that make the familiar strange
Representative works
William Eggleston's Guide (1976)
The Democratic Forest (1989)
Los Alamos (2003)
Related photographers
Photographers with a similar style Interpretation
Ordered by the FilmAnalysis editors’ style estimates: closeness of visual language, not a teacher, a group or an influence.
