About Ancient and Modern
 
 
 
Appreciation of Eggleston's work has grown enormously since his pioneering 1976 exhibition, William Eggleston's Guide, at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Called the “father of colour photography”, he has been widely regarded since the 1990s as the twentieth century's foremost and most influential colour photographer. Ancient and Modern brings together early photographs made in the American South, Africa and England. They depict everyday people and objects, revealing his unique ability to find beauty and striking colour in ordinary scenes. In his illuminating introduction, Mark Holborn describes their dark undercurrent: “On the surface, Eggleston's subjects are the ordinary inhabitants and surroundings of suburban Memphis and Mississippi: friends, family, barbecues, backyards, a tricycle and the clutter of everyday life. Their normality is deceptive, because behind the images lies a sense of danger.”