[St. Simon's Island, Georgia]

William Eggleston

negative 1978; print 1980

Dye imbibition print

J. Paul Getty Museum

A sun-soaked kitchen presents its component parts: a dish drainer, plates, cutlery, a washcloth, a roll of paper towels, and an empty orange juice carton for collecting cooking fats. The play of light on surfaces--the sink, the walls, the utensils and plate--forms the picture's main interest, and the relative lack of color, varied only from white to yellow light, heightens the scene's banality. William Eggleston often photographed such disarmingly ordinary, everyday subjects with no particular focus to the composition. He included this image in his 1978 artist's book, Morals of Vision.