A selection of nearly one hundred previously unseen images from the
1960s and 1970s by the pioneer of color photography, William
Eggleston.
The Outlands, a series of photographs taken by Eggleston between 1969
and 1974, establishes the groundbreaking visual themes and lexicon that
the artist would continue to develop for decades to come. The work
offers a journey through the mythic and evolving American South, seen
through the artist's lens: vibrant colors and a profound sense of
nostalgia echo throughout Eggleston's breathtaking oeuvre. His motifs of
signage, cars, and roadside scenes create an iconography of American
vistas that inspired a generation of photographers. With its in-depth
selection of unforgettable images--a wood-paneled station wagon, doors
flung open, parked in an expansive rural setting; the artist's
grandmother in the moody interior of their family's Sumner, Mississippi
home--The Outlands is emblematic of Eggleston's dynamic, experimental
practice. The breadth of work reenergizes his iconic landscapes and
forms a new perspective of the American South in transition.
Accompanying the ninety brilliant Kodachrome images and details, a
literary, fictional text by the critically acclaimed author Rachel
Kushner imagines a story of hitchhikers trekking through the Deep South.
New scholarship by Robert Slifkin reframes the art-historical
significance of Eggleston's oeuvre, proposing affinities with work by
Marcel Duchamp, Dan Graham, Jasper Johns, and Robert Smithson. A
foreword by William Eggleston III offers important insights into the
process of selecting and sequencing this series of images.
