Alec Soth

Alec Soth

Soth in his studio
Born 1969 (age 46–47)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Photography
Website AlecSoth.com

Alec Soth (born 1969, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States) is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis, who makes "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 that of Walker Evans and Stephen Shore.[1] He is a member of Magnum Photos.

Soth has had various books of his work published by major publishers as well as self-published through his own Little Brown Mushroom.[3] His major publications are Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual and Songbook. He has 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.[4] His work has been exhibited widely including as part of the 2004 Whitney Biennial and a major solo exhibition at Media Space in London in 2015.

Life and work

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]

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.[5]

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, he 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 (LBM), in 2010. Through it, he publishes his own, and that of other like-minded people, "narrative photography books that function in a similar way to children's books," in book, magazine and newspaper formats.[6] He has collaborated on numerous books with Brad Zellar, a Minnesota writer from the Twin Cities.

In 2010, Soth flew to the United Kingdom but despite not having applied for a work visa was allowed into the country on 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]

A 2016 photo exhibition, titled "Hypnagogia", featured 30 images from Soth's 20-year exploration of the state between wakefulness and sleep. “Described as a neurological phenomenon, one recurrently associated with creativity, a hypnagogic state is the dreamlike experience while awake that conjures vivid, sometimes realistic imagery,” Soth explained in the artist statement for the project.[7]

In 2004, Soth became a nominee of the Magnum Photos agency and in 2008 he became a full member. He lives with his wife and children in Minneapolis.[2]

Publications

Publications by Soth

Publications with others

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Collections

Soth's work is held in the following public and private collections:

  • Albright-Knox Gallery of Art, Buffalo, NY
  • Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
  • Carleton College, Northfield, MN
  • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa
  • General Mills Corporate Art Collection, Golden Valley, MN
  • Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Joseph M Cohen Family Collection, NY
  • LA County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
  • Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI
  • Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL
  • Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
  • Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
  • Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
  • North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
  • Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
  • Pier 24 Phtoography, San Francisco, CA[27]
  • Progressive Corporate Art Collection, Cleveland, OH
  • Regis Corporate Art Collection, Minneapolis, MN
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA[28]
  • Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE
  • Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN
  • Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
  • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hannah Booth (19 September 2010). "The genius behind Alec Soth's Brighton biennial success". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Hilarie m. sheets (July 31, 2009). "Trolling for Strangers to Befriend". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
  3. ↑ Stuart, Brumfitt (6 October 2015). "Alec Soth: in the Pool of Images". I-D. London: Vice Media, Inc. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Campoyleffler, Nicole (Sep 2, 2010). "Spotlight On Alec Soth At Minneapolis' Walker Art Center". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
  5. ↑ Leo Benedictus, interviewing Alec Soth (7 December 2006). "Alec Soth's best shot". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
  6. ↑ O'Hagan, Sean (14 April 2013). "How photographers joined the self-publishing revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Mora, Luis. "No Nonsense Advice from Alec Soth". Format Magazine. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  8. ↑ http://www.americanphotomag.com/how-does-it-feel-to-have-magnum-photographers-document-your-town
  9. ↑ http://hyperallergic.com/288841/a-portrait-of-rochester-new-york-in-1000-photographs/
  10. ↑ "Exhibitions – Alec Soth". Yossi Milo Gallery. 24 April 2004. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  11. ↑ "Stephen Wirtz Gallery". Wirtzgallery.com. Archived from the original on 24 June 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  12. ↑ Archived May 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ "Soth Bound", The New Yorker. Accessed 2 January 2015.
  14. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070928194039/http://www.wohnmaschine.de/alecsoth.0.html?&L=1. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ Archived April 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  16. ↑ "Alec Soth – January 20 – March 28, 2009 – Gagosian Gallery". Gagosian.com. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  17. ↑ "Alec Soth: Niagara" Williams College Museum of Art". Wcma.williams.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  18. ↑ http://clatl.com/atlanta/alec-soth-ventures-into-the-woods/. Retrieved May 18, 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ↑ "Triennale di Milano – Alec Soth – Mississippi Niagara". Triennale.it. 2010-03-21. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  20. ↑ "Walker Art Center". Calendar.walkerart.org. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  21. ↑ "Künstler : Ivan Grubanov : Ausstellungen : 2013 : Dead Flags – LOOCK Galerie". Loock.info. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  22. ↑ Alec Soth. "Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow | Exhibitions | Alec Soth – La Belle Dame sans Merci". Mamm-mdf.ru. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  23. ↑ "Sean Kelly Gallery – Alec Soth – Installation Views". Skny.com. 2012-03-11. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  24. ↑ "Gathered Leaves: Photographs by Alec Soth". Media Space. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  25. ↑ O'Hagan, Sean (7 October 2015). "Alec Soth: America's most immaculate, intriguing photographer". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  26. ↑ Brown, Mick (26 September 2015). "Photographer Alec Soth: 'To me the most beautiful thing is vulnerability'". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  27. ↑ http://pier24.org/collection/
  28. ↑ https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Alec_Soth
  29. ↑ "Infinity Awards 2011". International Center for Photography. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  30. ↑ "Guggenheim Fellowship". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 24 August 2015.

External links

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