The Democratic Forest. Selected Works

Over the course of nearly six decades, William Egglestonoften referred to as the father of color photographyhas established a singular pictorial style that deftly combines vernacular subject matter with an innate and sophisticated understanding of color, form, and composition. I am at war with the obvious, Eggleston has said. His photographs transform the ordinary into distinctive, poetic images that eschew fixed meaning. Featuring selections from the ten-volume The Democratic Forest (Steidl, 2015), this new book highlights 68 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 renowned art historian Alexander Nemerov, The Democratic Forest. Selected Works provides historical context for a monumental body of work, while offering newcomers a foothold in Eggleston's photographic practice. "Eggleston's hard architecture of splendid colors, flattened and floating in the sky, vividly showsand appreciatesthe American hubris of eternal disposability. He notes how the tastes of the moment (the golden arches, the shimmering soda bottles, the red Pegasus) cast themselves in immortal terms." Alexander Nemerov Co-published with David Zwirner Books, New York

Auteur
William Eggleston was born in 1939 in Memphis, where he today lives. Eggleston is regarded as one of the greatest photographers of his generation and a major American artist, who has fundamentally changed how the urban landscape is viewed. He obtained his first camera in 1957 and was later profoundly influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson's The Decisive Moment. Eggleston introduced dye-transfer printing, a previously commercial photographic process, into the making of artists' prints. His exhibition William Eggleston's Guide at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1976 was a milestone. He was also involved in the development of video technology in the seventies. Eggleston is represented in museums worldwide, and in 2008 a retrospective of his work was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and at Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2009. Eggleston's books published by Steidl include Chromes (2011), Los Alamos Revisited (2012) and The Democratic Forest (2015).

Résumé
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 William Eggleston's Guide, organized by the visionary curator John Szarkowski at The Museum of Modern Art, New Yorkthe first presentation of color photography at the museumheralded 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, this new book highlights 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 renowned art historian, 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.