Exhibition Review: William Eggleston | The Outlands
William Eggleston, Untitled, c. 1970-1973
© Eggleston Artistic Trust
Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner
Written by Gabrielle Keung
Photo Edited by Alanna Reid
Copyedited by Chloë Rain
William Eggleston’s exhibition, The Outlands, at David Zwirner Gallery encapsulates his instincts for the poetics of the American South. Even though romanticizing people of the South and their environs has never been his goal, Eggleston’s pictures display the vibrancy of its landscape in still shots, highlighting the richness and textures of the everyday and the mundane. Eggleston is not attracted to the dramatic or the theatrical — subjects that appear contrived and stiff — rather, he allows the Southern suburban and rural locals to speak to the audience in repose.
William Eggleston, Untitled, c. 1970-1973
© Eggleston Artistic Trust
Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner
Eggleston’s pictures are never loud. They are understated, tenderly transporting the viewer to street corners and burger joints that seem to exist in a world of their own. If one should find a soundtrack to match the pictures, it would be marked by long intervals of silence. The quietness, however, would not be unsettling because it would be interposed with the rhythmic groaning of a passing car, the sound of a flickering fluorescent light or the conversations of men loitering at a gas station. A strong sense of community and solitude coexist in these photographs. The photographer is either on a deserted street snapping pictures of a drive-in sign bathed in warm sunlight, or he captures a lone man walking down the street in a white collared shirt, black dress pants and leather shoes, while wide and long-angle shots position these solo figures in the vicinity of a general store selling anything from antiques to ice stored a in freestanding freezer. These details suggest that each picture, and its subject, is a fabric of the towns and their colorful history.
Installation view, William Eggleston: The Outlands, David Zwirner, New York, November 10—December 17, 2022. Courtesy of David Zwirner
Taken between 1970 and 1973, the works Eggleston exhibits at Zwirner today were crucial to establishing color photography’s status as art. His attention to the gradations and shades of colors and their interactions is as acute as a painter’s, but instead of conveying the depth and energy of colors with his brush strokes like a painter would, Eggleston manipulates his lens angles and plays with natural light to capture picturesque backdrops. For instance, the rolling clouds suspended above a vintage car idling in a field next to a curious chicken are akin to that of a painting, where various shades of gray, white and blue are layered on like paper mache, stretching towards the horizon. Eggleston’s ingenuity lies in the way he frames a picture, such that the lines, dimensions and shapes of his subjects almost effortlessly come together to breathe life into the scenery.
Eggleston’s works allow New Yorkers who are accustomed to the fast-paced city and its hustle and bustle a moment to pause and appreciate the simplicity of Southern streetscape. Though his photographs are characterized by their soft tones and warm hues, they never lose their brilliance and sharpness, inviting the viewer to see the beauty in the banal. The cacophony of traffic and sirens that make up the soundtrack of the city fades into the background as the viewers tune into the rich and soulful stories told by a car, truck, liquor store, or fast-food drive-in.
William Eggleston, Untitled, c. 1970-1973
© Eggleston Artistic Trust
Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner
