Visiting Artist Lecture: Alec Soth

Quinn 2007
Sydney, Tallahassee, Florida, 2004
Stacey, South Plains, Texas, 2004
Andy Goldsworthy, Ithaca, New York, 2004
Untitled 29 DOG DAYS BOGOTA

Untitled 26, DOG DAYS BOGOTA

Untitled 49, DOG DAYS BOGOTA

Crystal, Easter, New Orleans, Louisiana 2002 SLEEPING BY THE MISSISSIPPI
Joshua, Angola State Prison, Louisiana 2002 SLEEPING BY THE MISSISSIPPI






http://www.alecsoth.com/
The first photography dept lecture of 2010 was Alec Soth on Jan 27th.
We were all at the lecture, so i am not gonna talk about it.
Soth talked mostly of how his thoughts, ideas, photographs, and images were all connected through tangents which led from one moment to the next. By connecting each image inside his photographic books through sidenotes on tangentry , Soth created maps which told a story documenting each experience through which each viewer of his books of photography:
SLEEPING BY THE MISSISSIPPI, 2000
DOG DAYS, BOGOTA
NIAGARA
...could follow a story

This way, Soth not only tells a story within a singular photograph, but tells an entire novella romanticizing his mediocre experiences of everyday life as he travels forward in time. Soth's work is honest in depicting the itty gritty truth of the world, which is refreshing. Soth mentioned "photographic overload" brought on by our generations ability to constantly photograph each instant. I feel that in the world of digital photography I am being constantly lied to because of photoshop, lighting, set design, studios, make up, digital color corrections, flashes, and millions of other ways technology allows an image to lie, yet Soth remains and strives for honesty.
Soth's portraiture is what really speaks to me. Each portrait has a balance/harmony between the person/people/subject(s) and with the background/landscape/space. This allows for narrative. I know that these portraits tell the truth about the people in them and that most of them were strangers that Soth met along the way. Soth's images/portraits are powerful because he introduces the viewer to the World which he, himself encountered.
Thank You, Alec Soth, for showing me a true photograph[story].

Soth has a style very similar to the one that I strive for. His works really make me jealous because I love his photographs, but his style is exactly like that of my own and I now fear that everyone is going to think of me as "trying to be Alec Soth"
Oh well.