From the very beginning of his career, William Eggleston distinguished himself for his novel approach to documenting the world, driven by the philosophy that all subjects are equally worthy as subjects for art. His celebrated body of work, The Democratic Forest, is a book of images that champions the use of color in photography and reinforces the notion that it is the eye of the artist that establishes a work as fine art.

Brilliantly evident in this photograph from the early 1980s, and indeed throughout his best work, is Eggleston’s mastery of framing a scene; his ability to perfectly position his camera to capture exactly what is needed to convey the essence of a scene, nothing more and nothing less. He is a curator of the ordinary: presenting a simplified and nuanced snapshot of what could easily be overlooked amidst the visual chaos of the world around us. Here, the two cars emerge from the edges of the image; their hard angles mimic those created by the building along the top edge, and all flank the collapsing pile of round tires at center. It is about line, form and color, three of the most important elements of art, found and captured so succinctly in the real world by Eggleston’s unparalleled eye.