The book collects William Eggleston's early black-and-white photographs from the late 1950s and 1960s, taken around suburban Memphis, before he pioneered color photography. The images feature everyday scenes like diners, supermarkets, and domestic interiors, developing the style and motifs seen in his later color work. The plates in the book were scanned from vintage prints developed by Eggleston in his own darkroom. The book has been released in multiple editions, with ISBN 978-3869301228 associated with a 2010 edition and ISBN 978-3869307930 with a 2014 edition