The Easel

3rd February 2026

William Eggleston: The Last Dyes at David Zwirner

Eggleston caused a furore when his first show at New York’s MoMA featured colour photography. The rich colours he used commonly appeared in advertising, causing critics to call his work garish and an affront to fine art photography. At issue was a Kodak dye process (long since discontinued) that created colours so intense that images “acquired dimension”. Says one artist, Eggleston’s work was “one of the most perfect combinations of medium and subject in the entire history of art.”