William Eggleston

The Democratic Forest is a title which refers to a body of work of roughly 12.000 pictures taken by Eggleston in the '80s. A Small selection was published in 1989 and this new 2016 book is a sort of summary of the 10-volumes-1010 pictures edition published by Steidl in 2015. There are no indications about where in the 10 books these pictures have been taken off (though, quite obviously, not from the volume dedicate to the city of Berlin).
The selection is very good and contains some rarely seen pictures. The narrative is lousy, but it clearly talks about travel. It starts from "home" and then moves around. As common with Steidl, the book is greatly done. The prints are very saturated and quite grainy (coming from 35mm film). The introduction adds a remarkable comparison between E. and - another William from the south - Faulkner.… (plus d'informations)

Over the course of nearly six decades, William Eggleston—often referred to as the “father of color photography”—has established a singular pictorial style that deftly combines vernacular subject matter with an innate and sophisticated understanding of color, form, and composition.

Eggleston has said, “I am at war with the obvious.” His photographs transform the ordinary into distinctive, poetic images that eschew fixed meaning. Though criticized at the time, his now legendary 1976 solo exhibition, organized by the visionary curator John Szarkowski at The Museum of Modern Art, New York—the first presentation of color photography at the museum—heralded an important moment in the medium's acceptance within the art-historical canon and solidified Eggleston's position in the pantheon of the greats alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans.

Published on the occasion of David Zwirner's New York exhibition of selections from The Democratic Forest in the fall of 2016, this new catalogue highlights over sixty exceptional images from Eggleston's epic project. His photography is “democratic” in its resistance to hierarchy where, as noted by the artist, “no particular subject is more or less important than another.”

Featuring original scholarship by Alexander Nemerov, this notable presentation of The Democratic Forest provides historical context for a monumental body of work, while offering newcomers a foothold in Eggleston's photographic practice.… (plus d'informations)