“Eggleston’s images can trick you if you’re not careful. You have to look at them, then you have to look again and then keep looking until the reason he took the picture kind of clicks in your chest.”

—Augusten Burroughs, The New York Times Style Magazine, 17 October 2016

In 2004, Eggleston published two portfolios: Dust Bells Volume One and Dust Bells Volume Two. Each volume comprises 10 dye transfer prints that perfectly encapsulates why Eggleston has been called the father of color photography. The deep blues and powerful reds found in Dust Bells are Eggleston at his finest. These images depict life in the South from 1965-1974, attaching a thoughtful significance to everyday objects, actions, and passing moments – a couple eating fast food in their car, a lone sign along a highway, a billboard depicting a steak. Eggleston treats each image like a painting, rendered with split-second confidence.

The portfolio’s title refers to a sound on Eggleston’s Korg keyboard called, ‘Twinkle Dust Bells’. The sound is featured heavily on Eggleston’s 2017 album Musik, a collection of his piano improvisations and interpretations of jazz standards.

Dust Bells Volumes One and Two remain the last portfolios that the artist has compiled.

The photographs in this sale are master prints from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli of Color Vision Imaging Laboratory. They are the perfected dye transfer prints by which subsequent prints in the edition were judged. Acknowledged masters of the exacting dye transfer process, Mr. Stricherz and Ms. Malli achieved a level of skill in their craft that has not been surpassed. Working in partnership with William Eggleston and other eminent photographers, they have played a crucial role in raising the standard for color photography. Founded in New York City in 1981, CVI Lab became a destination for photographers looking for the finest color prints possible. Mr. Stricherz and Ms. Malli have steadily pushed the dye transfer technique forward, fine tuning the process’s many variables into a highly expressive, visually arresting, and archivally stable medium. For more information on Guy Stricherz, Irene Malli, and CVI Lab, click here.