From Leica World 1/2005 – Joel Meyerowitz “I watch. That’s my life”:

Joel Meyerowitz: “Eggleston came to new York in 1969 or 1970 and someone sent him to me. He showed me a box of black and white photographs from the south. Mediocre photos, in my opinion, without tension, without energy. I then showed him approximately 500 coloured works. We sat together until the early morning. And when he left he murmured something like: “Colour photography, that’s it.” He then started to take pictures similar to the ones he had done before, only in colour. As a millionaire he could afford to have them printed. Szarkowski liked my work in colour. But he kept saying:” I need prints. I need something for the wall.” Only I did not have the money for prints. That’s how Eggleston became the pioneer of colour. But that’s what it’s like in photography.”

joelmeyerowitz.com