William Eggleston Photography Quotations

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.

My friend who I went to boarding school with was interested in photography. He insisted that I buy a camera and marched me downtown.

I had the attitude that I would work with this present-day material and do the best I could to describe it with photography, not intending to make any particular comment about whether it was good or bad or whether I liked it or not. It was just there, and I was interested in it. That's what I still do today.

Photography just gets us out of the house.

We have a few things in common - smoking, drinking, and women. Photography just gets us out of the house. (To photographer Juergen Teller)

I am at war with the obvious.

Often people ask what I'm photographing, which is a hard question to answer. And the best what I've come up with is I just say: Life today.