
Fifty years after William Eggleston burst onto the art scene with a revolutionary pop of color, his revered dye-transfer prints are finally being presented together in New York City.

The now-78-year-old artist emerged in the early 1960s as the pioneer of modern color photography as an artistic medium to display in galleries and is now considered widely as its greatest exemplar in the art world.

His most notable portfolio, Los Alamos, is comprised of 75 dye-transfer prints from color negatives that were made between 1965 to 1974. The prolific series of captivating images have never been shown in its entirety in New York City until now.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently showing the entire collection as an exhibit titled, William Eggleston: Los Alamos.

Fifty years after William Eggleston burst onto the art scene with a revolutionary pop of color, his revered dye-transfer prints are finally being presented together in New York City. The above photograph was captured by Eggleston inside of a Memphis restaurant sometime between 1965 and 1968

The now-78-year-old artist emerged in the early 1960s as the pioneer of modern color photography is now considered widely as its greatest exemplar. The above photograph was captured by Eggleston in Memphis between 1965 and 1968

His most notable portfolio, Los Alamos, is comprised of 75 dye-transfer prints from color negatives that were made between 1965 to 1974. Pictured above is Eggleston's first color photograph showing a teen working as a store clerk pushing shopping carts at a supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee in 1965.

Jeff Rosenheim, curator of the exhibition at The Met told DailyMail.com: 'There aren’t too many artists who produced a portfolio like Eggleston did of work that have been done a long time ago. One of the coolest things about Eggleston is that he produced these series of photos between 1965 and 1974 and then kind of put it aside.

'And there are various reasons that might have happened. But when he decided to revisit the work, he made this portfolio - it’s called Los Alamos. It covers a nine-year period or so and it was all done in this dye-transfer material.

'The prints themselves don’t look like color prints today. They have extraordinarily interesting quality and it’s because he chose a medium of color printing that’s long gone.'

At the time, the dye-transfer color process had primarily been used by commercial photographers for advertising and product photography for things like perfume, bourbon, shoes, cars, and more until Eggleston took advantage of the process for his images, Rosenheim noted. The dyes used in the process are spectrally pure compared to the normal coupler-induced dyes used in images. Plus the dye-transfer process also possesses a bigger color gamut and tonal scale than other processes like inkjet.

'The dye-transfer process was not used by artists during this time period,' Rosenheim added. 'It's not that there wasn't color photography, it was just hard for artists to use because it was very expensive. Plus, most photographers had to work with commercial labs to produce the images and they couldn't do it on their own since they didn't have the control mechanisms they needed.

The prolific series of captivating images have never been shown in its entirety in New York City until now. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently showing the entire collection as an exhibit titled, William Eggleston: Los Alamos. The above image was captured by Eggleston in Santa Monica, California in 1974

In the 1960s, the dye-transfer color process had primarily been used by commercial photographers for advertising and product photography until Eggleston took advantage of the process for his images. The image above was captured by Eggleston in Memphis between 1971 and 1974 using the dye-transfer process

William Eggleston: Los Alamos includes richly colored photographs, including the image above of a person mixing a beverage aboard an airplane heading to New Orleans between 1971 and 1974

Other vibrant colored photographs captured by Eggleston includes cars and their body parts at several angles. The above image was snapped in Memphis between 1971 and 1974 by Eggleston

He also enjoyed capturing the beautiful sunset and landscape of cities across the country. Pictured above are colorful clouds during sunset above a shopping center in Arkansas between 1965 and 1968

Eggleston also captured several areas within Mississippi, which is where he grew up along with Tennesseend still resides. Pictured above is a store that appears to be closed in Mississippi between 1971 and 1974

The collection on display at The Met also includes the richly colored photographs showing the beautiful landscape of the Mississippi delta region, which is pictured above in an image taken by Eggleston between 1971 and 1974

Besides taking images during daylight hours, Eggleston also snapped photos during the evening. Pictured above is one of those images taken in Memphis between 1971 and 1974

Eggleston is also famous for capturing the unvarnished America in his images. Pictured above is the part of a sign on a building in Memphis between 1971 and 1974

'So there was color photography, but Eggleston really transformed the medium with fine art photography. Prior to his images, it had pretty much been exclusively present as monochromatic. ... Eggleston is not only a great image maker, but he's a great object maker and these prints are stunning. ... Although some of these photos have been shown in New York City, the whole set has not. So this is a big deal, it’s like the first time Beethoven's Symphony was played at Carnegie Hall.'

The exhibit at The Met includes Eggleston’s first color photograph which shows a teen boy working as a store clerk pushing shopping carts at a supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee in 1965.

'It’s that picture that he kind of said that he thought was a successful photograph and what a successful color photograph is at that,' Rosenheim stated in regards to Eggleston's first color photograph.

'But it's important what the subject is, Eggleston’s subjects and his approach to the subjects are distinctive. It does help us understand how different he was and how specific he was. He was interested in the contemporary built environment of the late 50s and 60s.

'Yes that’s a photo of a young man pushing a grocery cart. But the huge grocery stores with the huge parking lots are successful because of the success in the 50s of the automobile. The American scene had changed and when you come see the show, you will see a lot of photos of cars and the effect of cars on the environment.

He captured this image of a sign warning the speed limit near a school is 20mph in Memphis between 1971 and 1974

Eggleston snapped the above image showing the partial interior of a car with the driver's side window rolled down in Memphis between 1971 and 1974

Eggleston is recognized today as the pioneer of color photography and the personal documentary style. Pictured above is an image of the side of a home in Memphis taken between 1971 and 1974 by Eggleston

The collection on display at The Met also includes images he captured during several road trips he took with his friends Dennis Hopper and Walter Hopps. Pictured above is a gas station during the rain in Louisiana that was taken between 1971 and 1974

The trio of men visited Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Mexico, New Orleans and more during the 60s and 70s. While on those road trips, Eggleston explored America’s raw and sometimes amazing landscape through his lens. Pictured above is what appears to be the inside of a hotel room in Las Vegas between 1965 and 1968

'And instead of people shopping at little mom and pop grocery stores and clothing stores, and other such things. We have these big malls and they’re connected by interstate highways and it’s the sprawl of this and the success of suburbia. And he was one of the first people to photograph that.'

The exhibit also includes the beautiful landscape of the Mississippi delta region along with images he captured during several road trips he took with friends Dennis Hopper and Walter Hopps through the South and Southwest.

The trio of men visited Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Mexico, New Orleans and more during the 60s and 70s.

While on those road trips, Eggleston explored America’s raw and amazing landscape through his lens. He captured more than 2,000 images during those trips.

Eggleston captured more than 2,000 images during those trips. He named the collective body of work after the famous government research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico where atomic weapons were created and developed. Pictured above is a bottled drink placed on top of the hood of a car in Tennessee between 1971 and 1974

Over the decades, his photographs of commonplace subjects have influenced many generations of musicians, artists and filmmakers including the Coen brothers, David Lynch and Nan Goldin. Pictured above is a sweater placed on top of a washing machine in Memphis between 1971 and 1974

The exhibit at The Met also includes as a counterpoint a small suite of his rarely seen black-and-white photographs from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s that he made concurrently with the Los Alamos images. William Eggleston: Los Alamos will be on display at The Met until May 18, 2018. Pictured above is a 'no parking sign' in Memphis between 1971 and 1974

Eggleston, who has received several awards over the decades for his work and still resides in Memphis, named the collective body of work after the famous government research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico where atomic weapons were created and developed.

Over the decades, his photographs of commonplace subjects have influenced many generations of musicians, artists and filmmakers, including the Coen brothers, David Lynch, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Sofia Coppola, Andreas Gursky and Juergen Teller.

Eggleston, who attended college, but never graduated, became interested in photography while in school and essentially was self-taught in the medium.

The exhibit at The Met also includes as a counterpoint a small suite of his rarely seen black-and-white photographs from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s that he made concurrently with the Los Alamos images.

William Eggleston: Los Alamos will be on display at The Met until May 18, 2018.