Before color

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A box containing William Eggleston’s earliest black and white photography was discovered in the archives of the William Eggleston Artistic Trust in Memphis. These photos were later exhibited at Cheim & Read gallery in New York and sold. This book reunites these images, showcasing the artistic beginnings of a pioneer in contemporary photography. In the late 1950s, Eggleston began capturing suburban Memphis with high-speed 35 mm black and white film, developing a style and motifs that would influence his iconic color work, including diners, supermarkets, and domestic interiors. Fifty years later, all plates in this edition have been scanned from vintage prints developed by Eggleston himself. In the mid-1960s, after discovering color film, he quickly embraced it, stating, “And by God, it worked. Just overnight.” Although he abandoned black and white photography, its influence on his practice remains significant. This new edition follows the sold-out first print-run. Born in Memphis in 1939, Eggleston is a key figure in contemporary American photography, instrumental in establishing color photography as an artistic medium. He has published extensively and exhibited widely, with previous works including Eggleston’s Paris (2009) and Before Color (2010) from Steidl.