William J. Eggleston was born in Memphis, Tennesse, but grew up in the
small Mississippi town of Sumner. He became known as "the father of
color photography" for his striking photos of people, events and
landscapes in the South.
Although he had been been a professional photographer for several years
in the South, it wasn't until a visit to New York City in 1967 that
Eggleston became known outside that area, when the curator of the
Museum of Modern Art saw a collection of Eggleston's slides and was so
taken with them that several years later he arranged an exhibition of
Eggleston's work at the MoMA--the first individual exhibition of color
photography in that institution's history--and it helped make Eggleston
a household name in the art world. It wasn't long before his photos
were exhibited abroad to great acclaim. He won the Hasselblad
Foundation International Award in Photography in 1988, the Gold Medal
for Photography from the National Arts Club in 2003 and was awarded the
Getty Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of
Photography in 2004.