The Democratic Forest Selected Works

"The Democratic Forest: Selected Works" collects more than sixty images from William Eggleston's sprawling project of the same name, the body of work in which he pushed his idea that "no particular subject is more or less important than another" to its fullest scale.

David Zwirner Books and Steidl published this catalogue in 2016 to accompany David Zwirner's New York exhibition of selections from "The Democratic Forest." It carries original scholarship by Alexander Nemerov, which sets the pictures in historical context and offers newcomers a way into Eggleston's practice. The book runs 120 pages with 73 color reproductions, designed by Katy Homans and printed by Steidl in Göttingen.

Eggleston is often called the father of color photography. His 1976 solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, organized by John Szarkowski, was the museum's first presentation of color work and was widely attacked at the time; it is now seen as the moment color photography entered the art-historical canon. Eggleston has described his own approach as being "at war with the obvious."