William Eggleston to receive Outstanding Contribution to Photography award

The BJP tells us that William Eggleston is to be awarded a prize for his outstanding contribution to photography, can’t even think what his honest response to that might be…..try any of these

 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. 

 You can take a good picture of anything. A bad one, too. 

 Whatever it is about pictures, photographs, it’s just about impossible to follow up with words. They don’t have anything to do with each other. 

 I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around, that nothing was more or less important. 

 I am at war with the obvious. 

 I don’t look at other photographs much at all. I don’t know why. I study my own a lot. 

 There is no particular reason to search for meaning. 

 The way I have always looked at it is the world is in color. And there’s nothing we can do about that. 

“Recognised today as the pioneer of colour photography and the personal documentary style, William Eggleston has been producing cutting-edge work for over 50 years,” say the organisers of the Sony World Photography Awards, which has selected the US photographer at this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award.

Untitled. 1695-1968 fr. Los Alamos, Beehive. Image © William Eggleston, Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Untitled. 1980 fr – Lousianna Project – Hot Sauce. Image © William Eggleston, Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Untitled, 1971-1974. Image © William Eggleston, Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2259431/william-eggleston-to-receive-outstanding-contribution-to-photography-award#ixzz2PtCaP0FC
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The Secrets to Successful Black and White Portraits

This article on Lighstalking by Tiffany Mueller  gives sound advice on getting better black and white portraits. We run a very successful Black and White digital photography course that covers all this and more, details are here

“Black and white photographs can portray a higher level of timelessness than color images. The lack of color also gives us a better sense of the time and mood behind a portrait.  Because of these characteristics, black and white photography has maintained a strong presence in portraiture. Since the eye perceives black and white photography differently than color photography, the process behind creating compelling black and white portraits is also a little different.” Here are a few pointers to get you started:

©Keith Barnes

Click Here: The Secrets to Compelling Black and White Portraits

Before Colour: photographer William Eggleston in black-and-white

Variously described as the father of colur photography, William Eggleston is now recognised as having started his off beat imaging making in black and white. Eggleston in black-and-white? It seems a contradiction in terms. But here, finally, is the evidence that even the most famous colour photographer of all once saw the world around him in monochrome.As these rediscovered prints reveal, the man who made colour photography into an artform worked brilliantly in monochrome – and his eye for unsettling detail is every bit as sharp

If you don’t know his colour work have a look here for a taste