In Melbourne: William Eggleston Portraits at NGV until 18 June

There are mere weeks left to view the remarkable William Eggleston Portraits at National Gallery of Victoria.

This collection of photographs came to Melbourne directly from the National Portrait Gallery in London, and is the first major show devoted to portraits by Eggleston, a ground-breaking American photographer who is widely regarded as a pioneer of colour photography.

The free exhibition brings together more than 100 works by Eggleston, who is renowned for his vivid, poetic and enigmatic images of people in diners, petrol stations, phone booths and supermarkets.

William Eggleston Untitled, c.1965–9 Pigment print, printed 2016, 334 x 510mm Eggleston Artistic Trust © Eggleston Artistic Trust

William Eggleston Untitled, 1965 (Memphis, Tennessee) Dye-transfer print, 451 x 305mm Wilson Centre for Photography © Eggleston Artistic Trust

William Eggleston Untitled, 1969–70 (the artist’s uncle, Adyn Schuyler Senior, with assistant and driver, Jasper Staples, in Cassidy Bayou, Sumner, Mississippi) Pigment print, printed 2016, 1118 x 1524mm Courtesy the Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner, New York/London © Eggleston Artistic Trust

Highlights include Eggleston’s hypnotic portraits of locals taken in towns across the American South, a previously unseen image of The Clash frontman Joe Strummer and a never-before-exhibited portrait of the actor and photographer Dennis Hopper.

William Eggleston is renowned for his experimentation with dye-transfer printing, a commercial printing technique that produces highly saturated colour images. The use of this technique resulted in some of Eggleston’s most arresting and vibrant photographs.

William Eggleston Portraits is on display at NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Australia until 18 June 2017 as part of the inaugural NGV Festival of Photography. Entry is free.

Seen at top: William Eggleston Untitled, 1965−8 Dye-transfer print, printed 2004, 305 x 451mm Wilson Centre for Photography © Eggleston Artistic Trust.