From Black and White to Color

From Black and White to Color traces William Eggleston's move from early black-and-white work around Memphis to the colour photography he began at the end of the 1960s.

The Steidl hardback starts in the late 1950s, when Eggleston shot his home ground on 35mm black-and-white film and, in his own words, could not see past making "a perfect fake Cartier-Bresson." It includes photographs not published before, and it follows both the continuity and the breaks in his work, including the jump to colour. Ceilings, food and scenes of waiting recur across the two bodies of work, along with his unconventional croppings. The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris held an exhibition of the same title from 9 September to 21 December 2014, part of the Mois de la photo.

Eggleston was born in Memphis in 1939. Steidl's artist page notes the strong influence of Cartier-Bresson's The Decisive Moment and his introduction of dye-transfer printing to artists' prints. His 1976 show at the Museum of Modern Art, Photographs by William Eggleston, was a milestone.