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William Eggleston's Guide
In 1976, William Eggleston's Guide was the first one-man show of color photographs ever presented at The Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum's first publication of color photography. The reception was divided and passionate. The book and show unabashedly forced the art world to deal with color photography, a medium scarcely taken seriously at the time, and with the vernacular content of a body of photographs that could have been but definitely weren't some average American's Instamatic pictures from the family album. These photographs heralded a new mastery of the use of color as an integral element of photographic composition.
For this second edition of William Eggleston's Guide, The Museum of Modern Art has made new color separations from the original 35 mm slides, producing a facsimile edition in which the color will be freshly responsive to the photographer's intentions. Bound in a textured cover inset with a photograph of a tricycle and stamped with yearbook-style gold lettering, the Guide contained 48 images edited down from 375 shot between 1969 and 1971 and displayed a deceptively casual, actually super-refined look at the surrounding world.
For this second edition of William Eggleston's Guide, The Museum of Modern Art has made new color separations from the original 35 mm slides, producing a facsimile edition in which the color will be freshly responsive to the photographer's intentions. Bound in a textured cover inset with a photograph of a tricycle and stamped with yearbook-style gold lettering, the Guide contained 48 images edited down from 375 shot between 1969 and 1971 and displayed a deceptively casual, actually super-refined look at the surrounding world.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published May 25, 1976
5 people are currently reading
1363 people want to read
About the author
William Eggleston
58 books56 followersBorn in Memphis and raised in Sumner, Mississippi, William Eggleston was, even in youth, more interested in art and observing the world around him than in the more popular southern boyhood pursuits of hunting and sports. While he dabbled in obtaining an education at a succession of colleges including Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, he became interested in the work of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and began taking black and white photographs with the Leica camera a friend had given him. He began experimenting with color photography in 1965. Although processes for color photography had existed in various forms since the turn of the century, at that time it still was not considered a medium for fine art, and was mostly relegated to the world of advertising.
Eggleston was the first photographer to have a solo show of color prints at the MoMA in 1976. Accompanied by the release of the book William Eggleston's Guide, it was a watershed moment in the history of photography.
Eggleston was the first photographer to have a solo show of color prints at the MoMA in 1976. Accompanied by the release of the book William Eggleston's Guide, it was a watershed moment in the history of photography.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
April 19, 2018
I have to say, that for a while ago i started thinking that for exemple street photography and almost all photography only works in Black and white. That B&W is the only way to induce emotion to your work. I WAS SOOO WRONG.
Truly, there are photos who work better in Black and White. But there are also photos which work more fantastically in colour than black and white. For once, we are designed to see the world in colour. Imagine having to go through life seeing only monochrome or sepia.
There are people (mostly on instagram) who present their entire work in B&W. I came to the conclusion, that, when the photo has nothing to say, the one who took it applies a monochrome filter trying to make it more interesting.
Returning to Egglestone, he shoots in colour and it is great. This book shows photos of almost deserted small towns from America (where he spent his childhood). The nice colours contrast with the deserted empty atmosphere. Even when people are in the photo, they are most of the time lonely, or imobile. It looks like the time stopped and there is only one frame left. No before and no after. Deserted houses, cinema, pool, spiderwebs and cradle, cemeteries.
The world of Eggleston from this book is full of sadness and nostalgia. And nice colours
Truly, there are photos who work better in Black and White. But there are also photos which work more fantastically in colour than black and white. For once, we are designed to see the world in colour. Imagine having to go through life seeing only monochrome or sepia.
There are people (mostly on instagram) who present their entire work in B&W. I came to the conclusion, that, when the photo has nothing to say, the one who took it applies a monochrome filter trying to make it more interesting.
Returning to Egglestone, he shoots in colour and it is great. This book shows photos of almost deserted small towns from America (where he spent his childhood). The nice colours contrast with the deserted empty atmosphere. Even when people are in the photo, they are most of the time lonely, or imobile. It looks like the time stopped and there is only one frame left. No before and no after. Deserted houses, cinema, pool, spiderwebs and cradle, cemeteries.
The world of Eggleston from this book is full of sadness and nostalgia. And nice colours
May 30, 2012
I know it's weird to say that I "read" a photo book, but I am referring to the introduction written by John Szarkowski.
August 25, 2019
I appreciate his eye for color and the fact that he most probably pioneered a lot of the work. But there are some photos that I have a hard time appreciating, that just seem quite boring to me.
Having said he above, his best work in this book is really great. The man with the gun on his bed, the lady on the floral chair, the naked guy in the red room, the tricycle... all great.
Having said he above, his best work in this book is really great. The man with the gun on his bed, the lady on the floral chair, the naked guy in the red room, the tricycle... all great.
March 13, 2025
William Eggleston's Guide was the first one-man show of color photographs ever presented at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; it changed the world's perception of color photography forever, and its accompanying catalog is now considered one of the most important American photobooks ever published.
August 31, 2017
Edizione che riproduce fedelmente (e con stampa economica, ma decente) il libro che accompagnò la storica mostra al MoMA del 1976, vale a dire il momento storico in cui la fotografia a colori venne "sdoganata" in campo artistico. Corpus di immagini potente e importantissimo, in apertura un altrettanto fondamentale e celebre saggio di John Szarkowski in cui si analizza il tema dell'uso "descrittivo" del colore in fotografia, con alcune note particolarmente attente su Eggleston stesso (in particolare, l'aspetto diaristico della sua fotografia).
March 8, 2024
A ground breaking book in the history of photography that should be on the shelf of any shooter, interesting essay by John Szarkowski too.
December 8, 2008
Eggleston's work is dedicated to showing the beauty, humor and horror that surround us at all times and in all places. Forty-eight images of this viewpoint are captured here. Be sure to check out Walker Evans' Polaroids book - also on my "best of 2002" list.
Recommended by Amy
Recommended by Amy
April 15, 2025
Glorious color photography of deceptively mundane subjects. But there’s so much to see and enjoy here. A sense of mystery is present in many of its images, and combined with the excellent sequencing it spins a narrative that makes me want to return to it.
April 27, 2011
This book flipped my lid, opened my eyes, charmed me, made me turn a rich leafy green with envy, and seeing these printed in your own hands is a plus as opposed to seeing them online.
April 13, 2022
I’ve been an admirer of William Eggleston’s colour photography for many years, and have a couple of his photobooks in my collection, including a book of his portraits. William Eggleston’s Guide is considered by some to be a seminal work in the development of colour photography during the 1970s.
A viewer looking at the photographs in the book back in the seventies would have had a very different reaction to someone going through the book today. They would have been familiar back then, but five decades have passed since these photographs were taken, and any interpretation of them today is bound to be coloured as we look through our lens of nostalgia. The cars, the interiors, the fashions, everything looks dated, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of romanticising how great things must have been back then.
There’s no doubt Eggleston is one of the great colour photographers of his time, and some of the images are unforgettable, imbued with his signature snapshot-aesthetic style with the subject dead-centre. Many of the pictures look like lucky family snaps, and I wonder if they would stand out as art if they were presented to someone in a shoebox at a flea market. A photographer would be able to recognise qualities like the fine exposure and processing, and would probably acknowledge some of them were good, interesting pictures.
For me, the power of this book is in the editing and sequencing of the images. Presented as a collection they have a synergy that would be lacking in the individual images. In fact, the same could be said of almost any professional photobook. The edit and sequence is what brings a body of work to life, making us flick back and forth as we make up our own stories about what we see.
William Eggleston’s Guide contains a mix of subjects: semi-desolate landscapes, haunting portraits, lush interiors, and almost everything in between. I would recommend it to anyone interested in photography and photobooks. Those not familiar with Eggleston’s work will be enlightened to the possibilities that can present themselves while walking around with a camera, open eyes, and an open mind.
A viewer looking at the photographs in the book back in the seventies would have had a very different reaction to someone going through the book today. They would have been familiar back then, but five decades have passed since these photographs were taken, and any interpretation of them today is bound to be coloured as we look through our lens of nostalgia. The cars, the interiors, the fashions, everything looks dated, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of romanticising how great things must have been back then.
There’s no doubt Eggleston is one of the great colour photographers of his time, and some of the images are unforgettable, imbued with his signature snapshot-aesthetic style with the subject dead-centre. Many of the pictures look like lucky family snaps, and I wonder if they would stand out as art if they were presented to someone in a shoebox at a flea market. A photographer would be able to recognise qualities like the fine exposure and processing, and would probably acknowledge some of them were good, interesting pictures.
For me, the power of this book is in the editing and sequencing of the images. Presented as a collection they have a synergy that would be lacking in the individual images. In fact, the same could be said of almost any professional photobook. The edit and sequence is what brings a body of work to life, making us flick back and forth as we make up our own stories about what we see.
William Eggleston’s Guide contains a mix of subjects: semi-desolate landscapes, haunting portraits, lush interiors, and almost everything in between. I would recommend it to anyone interested in photography and photobooks. Those not familiar with Eggleston’s work will be enlightened to the possibilities that can present themselves while walking around with a camera, open eyes, and an open mind.
March 24, 2025
La doverosa e necessaria premessa nel caso vi venga in mente di sfogliare questo libro e arrivare alla conclusione che "Queste foto le so fare anche io", è che queste fotografie sono state pubblicate nel 1976.
L'introduzione di John Szarkowski spiega molto bene questa cosa, spiega soprattutto la rivoluzione che William Eggleston portò nel mondo della fotografia.
Il testo è un'analisi critica del suo lavoro, in particolare del suo approccio alla fotografia a colori e della sua capacità di trasformare soggetti ordinari in immagini artisticamente e concettualmente rilevanti.
L'autore discute come le fotografie di Eggleston siano spesso paragonate alle diapositive amatoriali Kodachrome, ma differiscono per l'intelligenza, la precisione e la coerenza con cui sono realizzate. Eggleston trae ispirazione da modelli comuni e da esperienze private, trasformandole in immagini che sembrano estratte da un diario personale.
L'elemento centrale delle sue fotografie è la loro immediatezza e chiarezza, che evitano simbolismi complessi o narrative forzate. L'autore sottolinea come Eggleston riesca a creare immagini in cui forma e contenuto coincidono perfettamente, rendendo superfluo qualsiasi tentativo di descriverle con le parole.
Il suo uso del colore è essenziale per conferire autenticità e naturalezza alle scene, evitando l'estetica monocromatica tipica della fotografia d'arte tradizionale.
Si evidenzia anche il contrasto tra le aspettative comuni riguardo alla fotografia americana – spesso percepita come piatta e standardizzata – e la capacità di Eggleston di rivelare complessità e tensioni anche nei soggetti più banali. I suoi scatti catturano la quotidianità con un'intensità visiva che sembra evocare una memoria eidetica.
Le immagini di Eggleston non sono documenti oggettivi ma piuttosto una forma di finzione visiva che rappresenta una visione personale del mondo. Queste fotografie sono surrogate visive dell’esperienza, offrendo uno sguardo privato ed elegante su una realtà apparentemente semplice ma profondamente significativa.
L'introduzione di John Szarkowski spiega molto bene questa cosa, spiega soprattutto la rivoluzione che William Eggleston portò nel mondo della fotografia.
Il testo è un'analisi critica del suo lavoro, in particolare del suo approccio alla fotografia a colori e della sua capacità di trasformare soggetti ordinari in immagini artisticamente e concettualmente rilevanti.
L'autore discute come le fotografie di Eggleston siano spesso paragonate alle diapositive amatoriali Kodachrome, ma differiscono per l'intelligenza, la precisione e la coerenza con cui sono realizzate. Eggleston trae ispirazione da modelli comuni e da esperienze private, trasformandole in immagini che sembrano estratte da un diario personale.
L'elemento centrale delle sue fotografie è la loro immediatezza e chiarezza, che evitano simbolismi complessi o narrative forzate. L'autore sottolinea come Eggleston riesca a creare immagini in cui forma e contenuto coincidono perfettamente, rendendo superfluo qualsiasi tentativo di descriverle con le parole.
Il suo uso del colore è essenziale per conferire autenticità e naturalezza alle scene, evitando l'estetica monocromatica tipica della fotografia d'arte tradizionale.
Si evidenzia anche il contrasto tra le aspettative comuni riguardo alla fotografia americana – spesso percepita come piatta e standardizzata – e la capacità di Eggleston di rivelare complessità e tensioni anche nei soggetti più banali. I suoi scatti catturano la quotidianità con un'intensità visiva che sembra evocare una memoria eidetica.
Le immagini di Eggleston non sono documenti oggettivi ma piuttosto una forma di finzione visiva che rappresenta una visione personale del mondo. Queste fotografie sono surrogate visive dell’esperienza, offrendo uno sguardo privato ed elegante su una realtà apparentemente semplice ma profondamente significativa.
January 19, 2017
As a serious photographer from Oklahoma, William Eggleston has always been an inspiring person for me since he has based his career on photographing Mississippi and the South. I've been photographing what's around me in Oklahoma since I got a Nikon FM2 and even though I live in Los Angeles now, I'm still more inspired by Oklahoma than I am this city...I take less photos here that's for sure.
My issue with this book is it is too sleight, with only a handful of Eggleston's work. There are more comprehensive books out there if you want to see more of his images--or just do a google image search and you'll see more. And, maybe this is just me, but it is kind of irritating that the guy writing the introduction [John Szarkowski] admits right off the bat he's never been to Memphis or northern Mississippi...and he then expounds on Eggleston's work without having any first hand experience with the part of the world Eggleston has devoted his attention on for decades. That rubbed me the wrong way...I'd rather hear from someone who has at least been to that part of the South! Szarkowski does have some address Eggleston using color and other interesting things, but come on...take a quick trip to Memphis and Mississippi for research, it's not that hard to get there in 2017.
My issue with this book is it is too sleight, with only a handful of Eggleston's work. There are more comprehensive books out there if you want to see more of his images--or just do a google image search and you'll see more. And, maybe this is just me, but it is kind of irritating that the guy writing the introduction [John Szarkowski] admits right off the bat he's never been to Memphis or northern Mississippi...and he then expounds on Eggleston's work without having any first hand experience with the part of the world Eggleston has devoted his attention on for decades. That rubbed me the wrong way...I'd rather hear from someone who has at least been to that part of the South! Szarkowski does have some address Eggleston using color and other interesting things, but come on...take a quick trip to Memphis and Mississippi for research, it's not that hard to get there in 2017.
April 26, 2021
Je ne me souviens plus si j'avais des attentes particulières avant de commencer ce livre, mais il est clair qu'après sa lecture, je n'en ai plus aucune pour le reste de l'oeuvre de l'artiste. William Eggleston est un nom majeur de la photographie couleur de la deuxième moitié du vingtième-siècle et je m'attendais donc en découvrant son oeuvre à me prendre une déflagration de force et de maîtrise (comme le dernier livre que j'ai consulté de Lewis Baltz, The new Industrial Parks near Irvine, California par exemple) alors que je n'y ai trouvé que de l'anecdote, des points de vue extrêmement subjectifs, des photos aux sujets trop disparates à mon gout. Même pour ce qui est de l'aspect formel, je n'ai pas apprécié le mélange des techniques notamment l'arrivée de photographies prise avec flash à partir de la deuxième moitié de l'ouvrage. J'ai tout de même eu quelques coups de coeur pour quelques photographies disséminées par-ci par-là, mais l'ensemble ne pas convaincu. Je ne suis pas beaucoup plus rentré dans le texte introductif.
August 25, 2024
i think out of all the photo books i own that this might be the most difficult for people to appreciate because of the subject matter of these photos and the seemingly banal family album feel of this collection of work but the lighting and colors are insane. it's funny because so many of these photos hold so much distance between the photographer and their subject which you would think would make for an alienating and uninviting atmosphere but it actually makes it easier to place myself inside of each photo. it's hard to articulate but i do find myself feeling a part of these moments instead of apart from them.
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August 21, 2025Somewhat polarizing in the photography world, William Eggleston's detractors claim his work is "boring" and "overrated." I think those people fail to see that a huge part of what makes Eggleston's work so compelling is the juxtaposition between a traditional suburban landscape and nude man in a red-tinted room with "God" written in graffiti on the wall behind him. It's the collective work, not individual photos that make him a fascinating photographer.
All of that said, the photo of the old man with the gun is easily my favorite in this series.
All of that said, the photo of the old man with the gun is easily my favorite in this series.
September 10, 2025
An incredible book of photography. Never fully tips its hat into any overcooked genre—I think mainly here of the sort of 'Southern/Appalachian Gothic" photography that has become exhausted in later, tumblrfied trends. That's certainly part of the mix here, but I can't help but love 'Guide' as the title of the collection here. This *is* a guide to a specific region, and it feels like it captures that region in a multitude of affects, both banal and sublime, worn and comfortable and uneasy and sinister.
June 27, 2017
Picked by: Krista
Most photographers will think choosing Eggleston as a favorite photographer is a little unoriginal, but there's something that keeps me going back to this book from his 1976 MoMA retrospective. On top of the striking photographs, make sure you read the opening essay by John Szarkowski, New York's Museum of Modern Art's then-Directory of Photography. It's one of the best essays on what it means to photograph in a technologically advancing age.
Most photographers will think choosing Eggleston as a favorite photographer is a little unoriginal, but there's something that keeps me going back to this book from his 1976 MoMA retrospective. On top of the striking photographs, make sure you read the opening essay by John Szarkowski, New York's Museum of Modern Art's then-Directory of Photography. It's one of the best essays on what it means to photograph in a technologically advancing age.
March 25, 2020
El texto introductorio me dejó un poco fría. A quien quiera una verdadera introducción a la obra de William Eggleston, le recomiendo The Democratic Forest-Selected Works, de la editorial Steidl, con introducción de Alexander Nemerov. Y a los que no solo quieren sino que también pueden, les recomiendo la edición monumental de Holborn, con texto de Eudora Welty. Léanla y después podrían contarme también cómo se siente gastar más de 550 dólares en un solo libro, Dios mío.
December 21, 2020
Eggleston’s work is a very strong inspiration to my own personal work and I think it is extremely inspiring to find the beauty in the mundane as well as dive deeper into the environments we spend so much time of our lives in. My favorite line from the essay written by John Szarkowski is “Preoccupation with private experience is a hallmark of the romantic artist, whose view is characteristically self-centered, asocial, and at the least in posture, antitraditional.”
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August 2, 2024To think of the first exhibit with these Eggleston photographs in color at the MoMa! Wished I could have walked the rooms to listen to the comments of the first visitors 😄 I.m.o. his best work was yet to come.
John Szarkowski's introduction was interesting. He made me look at some of the pictures with a different eye.
I hope to find some 'Egglestonian landscapes' (or rather 'Egglestonian moments' John would say) on my coming trip to Tennessee and Mississippi...
John Szarkowski's introduction was interesting. He made me look at some of the pictures with a different eye.
I hope to find some 'Egglestonian landscapes' (or rather 'Egglestonian moments' John would say) on my coming trip to Tennessee and Mississippi...
May 17, 2021
John Szarkowski's lucid essay is reason enough to get ahold of this book, but a dozen or so of Eggleston's photos (mostly the landscapes) are magical as well. The quality of the selection is uneven - some of these pictures truly look like bad snapshots - but turn the page and suddenly you'll see something that's perfect, form and content fusing completely in a luminous image.
October 14, 2017
I bought this book thinking it would have comments on each photo by Szarkowski whom I admire absolutely. It turned out to have only a long, albeit brilliant, essay at the beginning. The rest is Eggleston's photos, which, except for a few, don't do much for me. The essay, though, is inspirational.
September 23, 2021
This collection was great too, especially that all the photographs were from the 1970's. The essays in this book and the Hasselblad Award book pointed out how important Eggleston was to the acceptance of color photography as art.
December 24, 2022
Great book of color photos from the Deep South taken in the late 1960s and early 1970s, originally published in 1976. Has a great introduction by John Szarkowski on color photography in general and Eggleston's photos specifically.
May 4, 2018
difficult not to steal from the art library I used to work at
September 11, 2019
That book is actually outstanding.
December 24, 2019
Simply captivating
February 8, 2020
This is totally a great book. I like it.
November 20, 2021
Great photographs!!
December 6, 2021
This small book of photos are accompanied by a Great Essay by John Szarkowski!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews