American Outlands

William Eggleston is widely credited as one of the pioneers of colour photography, with his vibrant images of the American south from the late Sixties and early Seventies. The Outlands, published last year, is a mega three-book set of 405 photos taken between 1969 and 1974, none published before, and the final collection of his work. It's a common style now, just capturing the way things looked in roadside America, but Eggleston was the man who set the tone:

William Eggleston’s photography, drawn from his immediate surroundings, Memphis and its environs, offers one of the most intensive and concentrated responses to place in the history of photography. Eggleston’s remarkable pictures are the result of observing the world seemingly without judgement and certainly without imposing a commentary upon it. His pictures are a response to the way things look as they are photographed—and importantly in color. It was his use of color and his receptivity to its formal potential within photography that made his work so exceptional.