“His catalogue of images is like one enormous novel capturing a world, showing us the sly poetry and correspondence of things in casual repose.”

—Rachel Kushner, author 

The present image, from Eggleston’s Election Eve series, was taken in the days just before the 1976 presidential election, in which Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford. Commissioned by Rolling Stone, the series documents Eggleston’s journey from Memphis to Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia. The images, mostly devoid of figures, capture the eerie quiet and expectant energy of these small Southern communities, one of which would soon become a presidential hometown. While the Rolling Stone piece never appeared in the magazine, the compiled images became Eggleston’s first artist book, published in New York by Caldecott Chubb in 1977.

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.