| Alec Soth | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Photography |
Alec Soth (born 1969, Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American photographer notable for "large-scale American projects" featuring the midwestern United States.[1] His photography has a cinematic feel with elements of folklore that hint at a story behind the image. New York Times art critic Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he has made a "photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers" and photographs "loners and dreamers".[2] His work tends to focus on the "off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America" according to The Guardian art critic Hannah Booth.[1] His work has been compared to photographers such as Walker Evans and Stephen Shore.[1]
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Soth studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.[2] He was reported to be "painfully shy" in his youth.[2]
Soth liked the work of Diane Arbus.[2] He traveled around the Mississippi River and made a self-printed book entitled Sleeping by the Mississippi which included both landscapes and portraits.[2] Curators for the 2004 Whitney Biennial put him in their show, and one of his photographs entitled "Charles", of a man in a flight suit on his roof holding two model airplanes, was used in their poster.[2]
When he photographs people, Soth feels nervous at times. He said: "My own awkwardness comforts people, I think. It’s part of the exchange."[2] When he was on the road, he'd have notes describing types of pictures he wanted taped to the steering wheel of his car.[2] One list was: "beards, birdwatchers, mushroom hunters, men’s retreats, after the rain, figures from behind, suitcases, tall people (especially skinny), targets, tents, treehouses and tree lines.[2] With people, he'll ask their permission to photograph them, and often wait for them to get comfortable; he sometimes uses an 8x10 camera. He tries to find a "narrative arc and true storytelling" and pictures in which each picture will lead to the next one.[2]
Soth received fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center.[3] His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
His first book, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published in 2004.[2] His second book, Niagara, was published in 2006. One of his photos is of a woman in a bridal gown sitting outside what appears to be a motel; he describes having made an arrangement with a particular wedding chapel in Niagara Falls which let him take pictures of couples getting married, by photographing them after their weddings.[4]
Soth made several more photographic books including Last Days of W, a book about a country "exhausted by George W. Bush's presidency".[2]
Soth has photographed for The New York Times Magazine, Fortune and Newsweek.
Soth, along with writer Lester B. Morrison, created Broken Manual over four years (2006-2010) an underground instruction manual for those looking to escape their lives. Soth investigates the places in which people retreat to escape civilization. Soth photographs monks, survivalists, hermits and runaways.
Soth concurrently produced the photo book From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America an overview of Soth’s photography from the early 1990s to the present.
Soth founded the publishing house Little Brown Mushroom in 2010.
In 2010, Soth flew to the United Kingdom but was denied a work visa, but was allowed into the country with the understanding that if he was "caught taking photographs" he could be put in prison for two years.[1] So he handed the camera to his young daughter who took pictures in Brighton.[1]
In 2004, Soth became a nominee of the Magnum Photos agency and in 2008 he became a full member. He has expressed an interest in photographing "hermits, Scarlett Johansson, happy people, the Amazon, unusually tall people, Welsh countryside."[4] He lives with his wife and children in Minneapolis.[2]