William Eggleston | Before Color
June 16th – August 26th 2012

The American photographer William Eggleston (1939) is known as one of the major pioneers of artistic colour photography. Eggleston's black-and-white photographs are less well-known. In Before Color, the Netherlands Fotomuseum highlights this famous photographer's earliest work, which was only recently discovered.
The photographs show that Eggleston found his own style early on. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eggleston used a 35mm camera and fast black-and-white film to photograph the American way of life in the early 1960s. We see his own surroundings: suburban Memphis, with its diners, car parks and supermarkets, as well as the houses and domestic interiors of the people who lived there.

Breaking a tradition
At the same time Eggleston experimented with colour photography. Together with Joel Meyerowitz, Joel Sternfeld and others, he broke the long tradition of black-and-white photography by working in colour and focusing on subjects from daily life. He discovered the deep and saturated colours of the so-called dye-transfer printing technique, originally a commercial application that he perfected and that would become his international trademark. Eggleston would later abandon black-and-white film altogether and his earliest work was forgotten. So it was a surprise when a box of his black-and-white photographs was recently found in the archives of the William Eggleston Artistic Trust in Memphis. The photographs were exhibited for the first time in 2010 at the Cheim & Read Gallery in New York and published in the book Before Color (Steidl, 2010).

Before Color exhibition
This is the first time that Before Color has been exhibited in the Netherlands and includes nearly 40 photographs from William Eggleston's early career. The images show that Eggleston found his personal style and photographic motifs early on and provide a wonderful picture of the American way of life in suburban Memphis in the 1960s. Before Color by William Eggleston will be on display from 16 June until 26 August.

Book Before Color | William Eggleston | Steidl | € 48,- | ISBN 978-3-86930-122-8

The exhibition was realised in cooperation with Peder Lund (Oslo) and William Eggleston Artistic Trust (Memphis)