Personal Background
William Eggleston is an American and was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1939. He is 80 years old. He attended three different universities, but never graduated. He loved music, and was a bit of a troublemaker as a youth. The photographers that inspired him were Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans.
Style
The subjects of his photos are common and everyday things. To most, they would be considered unremarkable. But to him, they are interesting and photo worthy. He captures people and things just as they are. He also uses a lot of vibrant colors, which he is known for.
Philosophy
He was one of the first people to use colors in photography. Most photos were black and white and color was used mainly for advertising. So when he did, it was a sort of act of rebellion against what was “normal” in photography. The fact that the photographs are of common scenes and things shows his love for the little things in life. He finds something in even the most mundane entities.
Influences
I like how he uses such bright and vivid colors. I am going to try to apply that in my photos and editing. Also, his work shows that the subject doesn’t have to be extremely interesting. It can be anything, you just have to have the right colors, light, angle, etc. I am going to look for things to photograph with a different approach now.
Untitled Wispy Cloud
This is probably the closest out of the three photos. You can't see it in the remake because they got cropped out, but there were trees along the bottom like in the original. I think the color of the sky is pretty close. To get that color, I increased the purple hue. The clouds are completely different shapes, but I can't control that.
Self-Portrait in Profile in a Photo Booth Side Profile
This was a pretty easy photo to take because I could do it at home with my dad. In the original photo, there are more cream colors instead of greys. In the remake, there is more light, but they are both wearing glasses and facing the same direction. They are also both in black and white.
Untitled Ben with Car
This picture is the least accurate. In the original, it's cloudy and the field is more brown. There isn't much color. In the second one, the sky is blue and there is green grass.
Artist Statement
I tried to choose photos that would be easy to recreate. It was harder than I thought it would be to recreate them. This is because a lot of his pictures are of people going about their lives, and that isn't easy to stage. I learned that pretty much anything is photo-worthy, if you look at it in the right way. I also learned that each photographer has a distinct style.
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/william-eggleston-photographs-artsy/index.html
http://egglestonartfoundation.org/
http://www.artnet.com/artists/william-eggleston/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/william-eggleston
http://egglestonartfoundation.org/
http://www.artnet.com/artists/william-eggleston/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/william-eggleston