William Eggleston 

He was born in 1939 and is still alive at 78

When he was younger he would play around with the piano, drawing and electronics. School was hard for him because he did not fit in.

He was one of the pioneers of color photography. (colorist).

After high school he jumped around to 3 diffrent colleges and never got his degree. but at college he discovered photography. His friend gave his a Leica. Then he went to art school and studied abstract expressionism.

He taught of Harvard for a year and discovered a new paper type called dry transfer paper.

The MOMA did show color photographs before but Egglestons show in 1976 changed that. At the MOMA is where he became friends with Andy Warhol which gave him a lot of help. 

Heres a link to one of his famous books.