William Eggleston’s Guide / Essay by John Szarkowski

8vo (228 x 228 mm), pp.112. 48 colour photographs and 1 black-and-white portrait of Eggleston, design by Carl Laanes. Original black leatherette covered boards, spine and upper side lettered in gilt, reproduction of a colour photograph aff?xed to upper side; slight toning to extremities of first few pages. Near-fine.\n\nFirst edition. The adoption of colour photography, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, by William Eggleston, Joel Meyerowitz and Stephen Shore was not without precedent: interesting work had already been done in this medium by numerous photographers, including Paul Outerbridge in the thirties, and Keld-Helmer Petersen in the forties. Nonetheless, perhaps because of its commercial associations, colour photography had been slow to find acceptance in the art world. Eggleston’s solo exhibition in 1976 had the distinction of being the first exhibition of colour photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. As such, it and this catalogue which accompanied it are often credited with legitimatising colour photography for the serious American museum-attending audience. John Szarkowski noted Eggleston’s ‘ability to monumentalize the minutiae of mundane life’ and boldly declared that ‘as pictures, these seem to me to be perfect.’ To which New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer responded, ‘Perfect? Perfectly banal, perhaps. Perfectly boring, certainly.’\n\nRegards sur un siècle de photographie à travers le livre, (152); Roth, A., The Book of 101 Books, pp.234-5; Parr, M. and Badger, G., The Photobook: A History, Vol.II, p.265; Roth, A. et al. Open Book, pp.308-9; Auer, M. and M., 802 photo books, p.598.