The Democratic Forest
Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2015
ISBN 9783869307923,
Gebunden, 1328Seiten, 550,00 EUR
Klappentext
Vierfarbdruck. Includes a new introduction by Mark Holborn and the re-publication of Eudora Welty's original essay on the work. Following the publication of "Chromes" in 2011 and "Los Alamos Revisited" in 2012, the reassessment of Eggleston's career continues with the publication of "The Democratic Forest", his most ambitious project. This ten-volume set containing more than a thousand photographs is drawn from a body of twelve thousand pictures made by Eggleston in the 1980s. Following an opening volume of work in Louisiana, which serves as a visual preface, the remaining books cover Eggleston's travels from his familiar ground in Memphis and Tennessee to Dallas, Pittsburgh, Miami, Boston, the pastures of Kentucky, and as far as the Berlin Wall. The final volume leads the viewer back to the South of small towns, cotton fields, the Civil War battlefield of Shiloh and the home of Andrew Jackson, the President from Tennessee.
The democracy of Eggleston's title refers to his democracy of vision, through which he represents the most mundane subjects with the same complexity and significance as the most elevated. The exhaustive editing process of "The Democratic Forest" - a rarely shown body of work of which only a fraction has been published to date - has taken over three years, and was guided by the belief that only on this large scale can the magnitude of Eggleston's achievement be represented. With no precedent in American art, Eggleston's photography seen as a whole has all the grandeur of an epic piece of fiction.
Vierfarbdruck. Includes a new introduction by Mark Holborn and the re-publication of Eudora Welty's original essay on the work. Following the publication of "Chromes" in 2011 and "Los Alamos Revisited" in 2012, the reassessment of Eggleston's career continues with the publication of "The Democratic Forest", his most ambitious project. This ten-volume set containing more than a thousand photographs is drawn from a body of twelve thousand pictures made by Eggleston in the 1980s. Following an opening volume of work in Louisiana, which serves as a visual preface, the remaining books cover Eggleston's travels from his familiar ground in Memphis and Tennessee to Dallas, Pittsburgh, Miami, Boston, the pastures of Kentucky, and as far as the Berlin Wall. The final volume leads the viewer back to the South of small towns, cotton fields, the Civil War battlefield of Shiloh and the home of Andrew Jackson, the President from Tennessee.
The democracy of Eggleston's title refers to his democracy of vision, through which he represents the most mundane subjects with the same complexity and significance as the most elevated. The exhaustive editing process of "The Democratic Forest" - a rarely shown body of work of which only a fraction has been published to date - has taken over three years, and was guided by the belief that only on this large scale can the magnitude of Eggleston's achievement be represented. With no precedent in American art, Eggleston's photography seen as a whole has all the grandeur of an epic piece of fiction.
Rezensionsnotiz zu
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10.12.2015
Oh nein, stöhnt Andrian Kreye angesichts der Ordnung in diesen zehn Einzelbänden der Neuausgabe von William Eggleston 1989er Buch. Das Irrationale der Bilderfolge war für Kreye gerade das Geniale daran. Darüber hinaus wirkt die seinerzeit bahnbrechende demokratische Ästhetik, die das Banale zur Kunst erhob, auf Kreye heute schal, weil jeder Smartphonebesitzer Eggleston imitert, eine Flut der Mittelmäßigkeit, seufzt Kreye. Dennoch ist die Ausgabe für den Rezensenten sensationell. Von 166 auf 1328 Seiten erweitert, mehr als 1000 Bilder zeigend, bietet sie Kreye die Wucht in Bildern, von denen jedes einzelne das Potenzial zum Klassiker hat, wie Kreye ahnt.
Oh nein, stöhnt Andrian Kreye angesichts der Ordnung in diesen zehn Einzelbänden der Neuausgabe von William Eggleston 1989er Buch. Das Irrationale der Bilderfolge war für Kreye gerade das Geniale daran. Darüber hinaus wirkt die seinerzeit bahnbrechende demokratische Ästhetik, die das Banale zur Kunst erhob, auf Kreye heute schal, weil jeder Smartphonebesitzer Eggleston imitert, eine Flut der Mittelmäßigkeit, seufzt Kreye. Dennoch ist die Ausgabe für den Rezensenten sensationell. Von 166 auf 1328 Seiten erweitert, mehr als 1000 Bilder zeigend, bietet sie Kreye die Wucht in Bildern, von denen jedes einzelne das Potenzial zum Klassiker hat, wie Kreye ahnt.