Persistance of Vision - William Eggleston

WILLIAM EGGLESTON

BORN  July 27, 1939, Memphis, Tennessee

RESIDES  Memphis, Tennessee

EDUCATION  Attended Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN;  Delta State

College, Cleveland, MS; University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

TIMELINE

1957 Acquires his first camera, a Canon rangefinder.

1958 Acquires his first Leica.

1959 Sees Henri Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment and Walker Evans’s

American Photographs.

1965 Begins to experiment with color negative film.

1967 Starts to use color transparency film. Goes to New York and meets Garry

Winogrand, Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus. Presents his work to John

Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1972 Has his first dye transfer printed, Untitled, (Greenwood Moose Lodge)

1974 Harry Lunn publishes the first portfolio of dye-transfer photographs, "14

Pictures." Receives a Guggenheim Fellowship. Appointed Lecturer in

Visual and Environmental Studies at The Carpenter Center, Harvard

University. Completes his Los Alamos project.

1975 Receives a National Endowment for the Arts Photographer’s Fellowship.

1976 The Museum of Modern Art exhibits work in first solo exhibition of color

photographs, accompanied by a monograph, "William Eggleston's Guide."

Commissioned by Rolling Stone to photograph Plains, Georgia before the

election of President Jimmy Carter. This work becomes "Election Eve,"

the first artist's book of original photographs published by Caldecot

Chubb.

1978 Appointed Researcher in Color Video at Massachusetts Institute of

Technology at the invitation of Richard Leacock.  Photographs the Gulf

states on a commission from A.T. & T.  Receives another award from the

National Endowment for the Arts. Visits Jamaica.

1979 Chubb published three smaller volumes of original photographs mounted

and bound, "Morals of Vision," "Wedgwood Blue," and "Flowers."

1980 Travels to Kenya with Chubb and creates a body of work known as "The

Streets Are Clean on Jupiter." Commissioned to produce the "Louisiana

Project" and to photograph throughout the state.

1982 Invited to photograph the set of John Huston’s film Annie.

1983 Begins to photograph in Berlin, Salzburg and Graz and titles the series

Kiss me Kracow. Commissioned to photograph the mansion of Elvis

Presley, Graceland.

1986 Invited by director David Byrne to visit and photograph the making of his

film True Stories.  Commissioned by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

to photograph in Egypt.

1988 Begins a series of color photographs of England he calls English Rose. 

1989 Photographs in the orange groves of the Transvaal.  Accepts one of “54

Master Photographers of 1960-1979” awards from Photographic Society

of Japan.  Plays the role of musician Jerry Lee Lewis’ father in the movie

Great Balls of Fire.

1992 Travels to China, mainly photographing in Beijing.

1993 Commissioned by Delta Pine and Land to photograph Scott, Mississippi.

1996 Commissioned by Coca-Cola to photograph their plants in four cities in

the U.S. Invited by producer Caldecot Chubb to visit and photograph the

making of the film Eve’s Bayou.  Receives the University of Memphis

Distinguished Achievement Award.

1998 First dealer and longtime friend, Harry Lunn dies.

1999 Invited by director Gus Van Sant to visit and photograph the making of the

film Easter.  Invited by the J. Paul Getty Museum to photograph the

museum and its grounds.  Also photographs religious locations in Orange

County, California.

2000 Commissioned by the Cartier Foundation to photograph the American

desert. Commissioned by Paramount Pictures to photograph studio lot in

Hollywood, California.

2001 Travels to Japan and photographs Kyoto.  Agrees to work with filmmakers

Vincent Gerard and Cedric Laty to produce a documentary film entitled

Eggleston Suite, later titled By The Ways (A Journey With William

Eggleston).

2002 Travels extensively and photographs locations including Pasadena,

California; the New Jersey Shore; Queens, New York; St. Petersburg,

Russia; and Tuscany, Italy.

2003 Travels to and photographs the Niagara Falls area.  Travels to Arles,

France to attend Rencontres d’Arles and meets Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Accepts Gold Medal for Photography from National Arts Club, New York.

2004 Receives the Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award at the

International Center of Photography (ICP). Travels to Hawaii and

photographs with new Hasselblad panoramic format camera. Travels to

Madrid to accept 2004 Photoespana Award. Travels to Clovis, New

Mexico and photographs the city and Norman Petty Recording Studios.

Stranded In Canton, a video shot by Eggleston in the early seventies is

screened in London.

2005 William Eggleston In The Real World, a documentary film on Eggleston by

Michael Almereyda is completed. Travels to Xilitla, Mexico to photograph

Las Pozas. Longtime advisor and friend, Walter Hopps dies. Invited and

travels to Tokyo to be guest judge at Canon’s New Cosmos Photography

Contest.