Paris is the result of a three-year commission by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, which invited William Eggleston to capture the French capital through his unique lens. Moving away from the postcard-perfect vistas of the city, Eggleston applies his “democratic” way of seeing to the mundane and overlooked: a stack of colorful crates, the texture of a weathered wall, or the peculiar light reflecting off a sidewalk. The 184-page monograph presents a vibrant, fragmented portrait of Paris that feels both intimate and strangely detached. The images are interspersed with Eggleston’s own line drawings, which reveal a graphic sensibility that informs his photographic compositions. This project marks a rare instance of the artist working extensively outside the American South, proving that his mastery of color and form is universal.
