FMP Alec Soth - slowing down

Beverly told me about a talk by Alec Soth via Zoom organised by FOAM so we both joined and chatted privately on the way that way processing the information.

Alec wanted to rethink his relation to the world and his connection to photography. His work is always about social distance (already before he new the term) and socials awkwardness and he wasn't sure if he wanted to exhibit that, not so positive feeling. That is the reason he step back and took a way off, not having a project. He travels a lot to photo festivals and asked friends in those places for names of people who he could take images off. That way he got people in front of his camera. He took the images large format on location. Sometimes a shelve of books told more about the person and that became the portrait because it told as much, or more than having the person in front of the camera.

He was trying to make images that told the story themselves without having to tell about it: see if the images could exist outside of text. See if that was possible because nowadays contextualisation is almost more important than the images itself. Telling us about the images and how they were made is a contradiction.

He made a lot of images through the window. But not in a voyeuristic way:

" Every window is a mirror that reflects the photographer." Soth says.

Soth came to the conclusion that everything is connected and can find meaning through the story. The photos were not taken to become a project, but ended that way, unintentional. What was nice to hear is that he did not start with a specific plan, but gradually the intent grew and took shape with the series.

Alec told that he understands books; it is controllable but isn't very good at curating his own work for exhibitions on a wall. An exhibition space is different and the people from the gallery and museums know their spaces better. For that he has to rely on them for a big part; this is about trust. These days, using digital tools, it gets more easy to create ideas though. Seeing the work in big prints is different than on the screen or in a book; it is about the physicality, a different energy.

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On Wednesday I met with Laura, Chris, Michael and Bev online and we discussed the intent and the connection of project. How this can grow, change overtime and how some people do the same all the time and others do something else. Was fun to see that Michael thought that I do the same for years while I did almost everything from illustration, fashion, street photography, portrait, documentary and weddings. The difference to all the things I did before is that I am really happy during the process. Have to say that I enjoyed making the illustrations for magazines. When I think of it it has the same kind of workflow, playing, thinking and experimenting.

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Recources:

Reference:

FOAM. 2020. Alec Soth. .Available at https://www.foam.org/about/press-office/alec-soth [accessed 17 September 2020]

SOTH, Alec. website. Available at https://alecsoth.com/photography/ [accessed 17 September 2020]

SOTH, Alec. 2010. Alec Soth: Birth of an Exhibit. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_UnbYmWeeQ&feature=youtu.be [accessed 17 September 2020]