The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston, co-published by the University of Mississippi Museum and the University Press of Mississippi, is an examination of the life and work of the artist widely considered to be the father of color photography.

William Eggleston was born in 1939 and grew up in the Mississippi Delta town of Sumner. His innovative 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York helped establish color photography as an artistic medium and has inspired photographers and artists around the world. Eggleston's work is held in major international museum collections and has been shown at more than one hundred solo exhibitions worldwide and published in ninety portfolios, monographs, and exhibition catalogs.

The catalog contains fifty-five Eggleston photographs, thirty-six that were featured in The Beautiful Mysterious exhibition at the University of Mississippi Museum from September 2016 to February 2017. Eggleston's longtime friend William Ferris, a celebrated folklorist, donated all the photographs to the Museum. The photographs range from 1962 into the 1980s, representing each of Eggleston's projects during that time.

The Beautiful Mysterious is available for pre-sale through the University Press of Mississippi and will officially be released on June 17.

Event address: 

Off Square Books

129 Courthouse Square

Oxford, MS 38655