Award-winning photographer Cade Martin, who photographs Capitol Communicator’s “up close and personal” profiles, was in Memphis recently with time to kill and he decided to see if he could meet and photograph William Eggleston, who is considered “the father of color photography.”

If he could  photograph Eggleston, it would be like “cooking dinner for Julia Child,” said Cade.

According to Cade, Eggleston is “a true original in the field for nearly 60 years.  He’s a photographer who has turned his lens and his attention to the commonplace, finding stark beauty in the banal, and forever changing the aesthetic of the American photographic landscape through color. And, he’s a true original regardless of medium, a forever creative inspiration to me to always follow your own path.”

Cade called Eggleston’s son and got the go-ahead for a meeting. Cade said, “I walked into William Eggleston’s quiet apartment and found him down a hall, lying on his bed smoking a cigarette. After a couple hours of visiting time, where he blew me away with his razor-sharp memories of his work down to the camera he used in 1973, we came back around to creating his photograph. He put on his suit and ascot, I asked him for seven minutes outside and – despite his son’s prepping me for a “no” – I was able to convince him to come to the simple set I’d built in the park across the street. I kept my promise on the seven minutes, I’d waited patiently to hurry up and make a picture of one of the great American photographers.

“As we worked outside, I asked Eggleston who was the most difficult person he’d worked with. He replied, “you.””