William EgglestonThe Outlands

The three volumes of The Outlands are drawn from photographs that William Eggleston (b. 1939) made on colour transparency film from 1969 to 1974, which formed the basis of John Szarkowski’s seminal exhibition on Eggleston at MoMA in 1976, along with the accompanying book William Eggleston’s Guide. However, with the exception of a few alternative versions, none of the photographs in The Outlands have been published before. The whole series takes the same departure as Guide and its famous tricycle photo, to give free rein to a use of pure colour. At the time, Eggleston was photographing a world that was already disappearing. Today, this latest instalment of his colour work offers the viewpoint of a great American colourist who is honing his own photographic language on the Deep South in transition.