The Outlands — William Eggleston, first edition, Steidl 2021

A landmark publication in contemporary color photography, The Outlands gathers over 400 previously unpublished images by William Eggleston — a revelatory extension of his pioneering work from 1969 to 1974. Issued by Steidl as a three-volume boxed set, this first edition comes complete with the original publisher’s shipping box and catalogue insert — a pristine collector’s copy, untouched and unread.

Edited by Mark Holborn, William Eggleston III, and Winston Eggleston, The Outlands revisits the same archive that shaped Chromes (2011), Los Alamos Revisited (2012), and The Democratic Forest (2015), yet every image here is previously unseen. The sequence begins at the suburban Memphis street where Eggleston famously photographed the red tricycle, and unfolds southward into the fading towns and landscapes of Mississippi — the American South in transition. Color is handled with Eggleston’s signature clarity and intuition, hovering just above the real, transforming gas stations, living rooms, and roadside scenes into chromatic epiphanies.

Housed in a clothbound slipcase, the production reflects the scale and seriousness of the work — not a supplement, but a culmination. As a complete object, including the rare original shipping box, this set is both visual archive and artefact: a final chapter to the story that began with William Eggleston’s Guide in 1976.

Technical Sheet
Title: The Outlands
Artist / Author: William Eggleston
Editors: Mark Holborn, William Eggleston III, Winston Eggleston
Date: First edition, 2021
Technique / Printing Method: Offset
Medium / Materials: Three hardcover volumes in slipcase, with publisher’s original shipping box and catalogue insert
Dimensions (cm): 31.5 × 32
Language: English
Pages: 652
Images: 405
Publisher / Editor: Steidl, Göttingen
ISBN: 978-3-95829-265-9
Condition: NEW / mint / unread