Untitled (Near Morton, Mississippi)

ca. 1972, printed 1986

Not on view

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta, Eggleston is known for his enormously influential color photographs of the American South. He began making black-and-white photographs in 1959, inspired by the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s celebrated book The Decisive Moment. Eggleston turned to color in the late 1960s, photographing mundane subjects—parked cars, neon signs, the contents of his refrigerator—in a deceptively simple, snapshot-like style. His sensibility, like that of the writer and fellow Southerner William Faulkner, is both lyrical and lurid. Eggleston was one of the first noncommercial photographers to exploit the deeply saturated colors of the dye-transfer printing process, which allowed him to render the tawdry beauty of the South with a dreamlike intensity.

Artwork Details

Title: Untitled (Near Morton, Mississippi)
Artist: William Eggleston (American, born Memphis, Tennessee, 1939)
Date: ca. 1972, printed 1986
Medium: Dye transfer print
Dimensions: Image: 28.8 x 43.4 cm (11 5/16 x 17 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 45.7 x 58.4 cm (18 x 23 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Purchase, Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and Jennifer and Philip Maritz Gift, 2012
Object Number: 2012.292
Rights and Reproduction: © Eggleston Artistic Trust
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

By William Eggleston

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Untitled (Greenwood, Mississippi), William Eggleston American, Dye transfer print — Untitled (Greenwood, Mississippi)
William Eggleston
1970, printed 1999

Gray and Brass, John Sloan American, Oil on canvas, American — Gray and Brass
John Sloan
1907

Untitled (Memphis), William Eggleston American, Dye transfer print — Untitled (Memphis)
William Eggleston
ca. 1972

Untitled (Huntsville, Alabama), William Eggleston American, Dye transfer print — Untitled (Huntsville, Alabama)
William Eggleston
ca. 1969–70

Necklace, Meta Overbeck American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American — Necklace
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
ca. 1914–15

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.