William Eggleston

The 1976 exhibition “Color Photographs by William Eggleston” at the Museum of Modern Art was described as “The Most Hated Show of the Year.”¹ It was the first color photography exhibition in the institution’s history.

John Szarkowski, MoMA’s Director of Photography, edited and contributed an essay for the accompanying book titled “William Eggleston’s Guide.” In it he called the pictures “perfect” and makes “an incisive commentary on color photography and the work of Eggleston.”²

Prints for the exhibition were made under Eggleston’s supervision using Dye-transfer printing at Berkley K+L Color Labs in New York and the K+S Photo Labs in Chicago.

¹ William Eggleston’s Big Wheels, Smithsonian Magazine, August 2011
² William Egglestons’s Guide Press Release, MoMA 1976