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 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, 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.
Author Biography
William Eggleston was born in 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in the Mississippi Delta. He has lived in Memphis for the majority of his life. Since the 1970s, Eggleston's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide and work by the artist is held in major international museums. In 1975, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and since then has been the recipient of numerous notable awards, including the University of Memphis Distinguished Achievement Award (1996); International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement (2004); the Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award (2004); and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication, Republique Francaise (Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic) (2016), among others.
Alexander Nemerov is Department Chair & Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford. Prior to joining Stanford, he was a Professor of Art History and American Studies at Yale University. Over the years he has published several books and articles pertaining to the culture of American art dating from the eighteenth to the 1970s. His writing often analyzes fiction and poetry alongside works of visual art. His father was the poet Howard Nemerov, his aunt the photographer Diane Arbus.
