Faces from the past: William Eggleston’s portraits of the American south

If there is a must-see photography exhibition this year, William Eggleston Portraits – mainly taken near the photographer's home in the American south – should be at the top of your list.

Eggleston's photos, now on show at the National Gallery of Victoria, provide a remarkable insight into the faces of a bygone generation of Americans near Eggleston's home in Memphis, Tennessee.

"William Eggleston is one of the major figures of 20th-century photography; he's someone who is widely credited with shifting perceptions of the use of colour photography to create works of art," Susan Van Wyk, NGV's senior curator of photography, told Fairfax Media.

The images include Eggleston's colour portraits of American southerners along with a previously unseen portrait of Joe Strummer from the Clash, and of the actor and photographer Dennis Hopper.

Eggleston, unlike many photographers, only ever took a single image of each subject. "The clarity and power of his images comes through with this unique photographic method," Van Wyk says. "Eggleston photographed the ordinary and the everyday … and elevated them to works of art, which was innovative at the time."

William Eggleston Portraits is on show at Melbourne's NGV International until June 18 as part of the inaugural NGV Festival of Photography. Entry is free.