Wonder Bread on empty shelves and freezer-burnt microwave meals take on a new beauty at David Zwirner Los Angeles. The Last Dyes, a collection of prints from American photographer William Eggleston, will be on display at the gallery from November 16, 2024 to February 1, 2025. The exhibition is a part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative, a series presented by The Getty spotlighting the magic that emerges when art and science intertwine.

The prints on display are selected from Eggleston’s Outlands and Chrome series, photographed during the artist's travels through the Deep South between 1969 to 1974. Cowboys in Cadillacs, haunting hotel rooms, and decaying diners evoke a sense of loneliness that is distinctly American. 

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The Last Dyes refers to a dye-transfer process pioneered by Eggleston in the 1970s to print his work. Developed by Kodak, it involves separating the original image into three negatives and covering them in a dye bath before rolling the film onto special-fiber paper. Unfortunately, Kodak discontinued the dyes and fiber paper in the 90s. Consequently, this series is the final prints of Eggleston’s produced using this technique. Perhaps there is some sort of metaphor found between the extinction of this meticulous printing method and the decaying America Eggleston immortalizes in his work. Though these photographs capture something that can no longer be reproduced, perhaps that is what makes them so memorable.