Quotes by William Eggleston

William Eggleston

A lot of my friends were mostly working in black-and-white-people like Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and others. We would exchange prints with each other, and they were always very supportive of what I was doing. What each of us was doing photographically was entirely different, but we were basically coming from the same place, sort of like a club.

Black And White

People

Supportive

A person can attack that bottle of vodka and drink it like it’s a bottle of cold water. Two of my wife’s girlfriends died from drinking. They weren’t big pill-takers; they were drinkers. So it can’t be so simple as to slide away, like Marilyn Monroe.

Drinking

Girlfriend

Simple

A picture is what it is and I’ve never noticed that it helps to talk about them, or answer specific questions about them, much less volunteer information in words. It wouldn’t make any sense to explain them. Kind of diminishes them. People always want to know when something was taken, where it was taken, and, God knows, why it was taken. It gets really ridiculous. I mean, they’re right there, whatever they are.

Mean

People

Taken

And what we called photojournalism, the photos seen in places like Life magazine, didn’t interest me either. They were just not good-there was no art there. The first person who I respected immensely was Henri Cartier-Bresson. I still do.

Art

Firsts

Magazines

Black-and-white photography, which I was doing in the very early days, was essentially called art photography and usually consisted of landscapes by people like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. But photographs by people like Adams didn’t interest me.

Art

Black And White

Photography

Generally, that’s what happens-a fundamental rotting of the idea. They woke up with the wrong idea. It’s just like music: If you don’t have an innate love or calling for it, then no matter how much you study or how well you can play by looking at the score, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to make really good music.

Ideas

Mean

Play

Half voluntarily, half Winston’s older brother [William] would take me in, saying, “Daddy, I think you oughta do this.” And I’d say, “I think you’re right, maybe I do need it.” Sometimes a week later I’d leave the place; sometimes I’d stick it out for a month.

Brother

Daddy

Thinking

I am afraid that there are more people than I can imagine who can go no further than appreciating a picture that is a rectangle with an object in the middle of it, which they can identify.

Appreciate

People

Photographer

I am at war with the obvious.

Photographer

Photography

War

I don’t have a burning desire to go out and document anything. It just happens when it happens. It’s not a conscious effort, nor is it a struggle. Wouldn’t do it if it was. The idea of the suffering artist has never appealed to me. Being here is suffering enough.

Artist

Photography

Struggle

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Able

Answers

Appreciate

Art

Artist

Attention

Attitude

Black And White

Blind

Boring

Brother

Cameras

Clients

Color

Crime

Daddy

Directors

Discipline

Doe

Down And

Drawing

Drinking

Drunk

Example

Eye

Facts

Firsts

Follow Up

Girlfriend

Grew

Guy

Hanging Out

Happened

House

Ideas

Important

Impossible

Interesting

Language

Legends

Looks

Magazines

Mean

Memphis

Might

Mind

Missing

Museums

Musician

Peculiar

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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The Autobiography

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Quotes by William Eggleston

William Eggleston

A person can attack that bottle of vodka and drink it like it’s a bottle of cold water. Two of my wife’s girlfriends died from drinking. They weren’t big pill-takers; they were drinkers. So it can’t be so simple as to slide away, like Marilyn Monroe.

And what we called photojournalism, the photos seen in places like Life magazine, didn’t interest me either. They were just not good-there was no art there. The first person who I respected immensely was Henri Cartier-Bresson. I still do.

Black-and-white photography, which I was doing in the very early days, was essentially called art photography and usually consisted of landscapes by people like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. But photographs by people like Adams didn’t interest me.

Half voluntarily, half Winston’s older brother [William] would take me in, saying, “Daddy, I think you oughta do this.” And I’d say, “I think you’re right, maybe I do need it.” Sometimes a week later I’d leave the place; sometimes I’d stick it out for a month.

I am afraid that there are more people than I can imagine who can go no further than appreciating a picture that is a rectangle with an object in the middle of it, which they can identify.

I am at war with the obvious.

I don’t have a burning desire to go out and document anything. It just happens when it happens. It’s not a conscious effort, nor is it a struggle. Wouldn’t do it if it was. The idea of the suffering artist has never appealed to me. Being here is suffering enough.

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Topics by William Eggleston

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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