Artist Lecture: Alec Soth

Alec Soth is a photographer born in 1969, who is based out of Minnesota, and has been recently established after publishing a few different books of his work. A few different series of his stood out to me in his presentation, including his most noticed, Sleeping By the Mississippi. This series of his work established a long series connection with photographs all somehow relates to each. The connection between each of his photographs is not necessarily pictured in the photograph, but is contextualized through interpreting the imagery. Here is an example from his series:

Fort Jefferson Memorial Cross, Wickliffe, Kentucky 2002

Charles, Vasa, Minnesota 2002

This body of work made me question exactly why we connect photographs in the way we do, and if we really think through all of the photography we create as to how it relates to the rest of a particular body of work. In the above example his connection between the two photographs was the second man from the left in the first image wanted to have his own flying school, and the planes in the second photograph suffice the connection. This connection would not have been known by the viewer just visually looking, which made Alec think about how work connects with each other, and how important the story behind the image is. I looked at my own work, starting to think about how i am connecting and drawing lines in my own work. His pieces made me realize the importance of how, and what kind of a connection is made between pieces of art, and how that might affect the piece.

He went on, discussing how this pondering of connecting stories and themes reminds him of a story that gets told within imagery. Alec started to focus on a desire for narrative in his pieces to tie them together. This discovery led him to two different pieces, both narrative in nature, one being The Most Beautiful Woman in Georgia, and The Loneliest Man in Missouri. Both pieces interested me because i felt, especially with The Loneliest Man in Missouri, a strong connection to my own work, and how i am making a narrative in my own pieces, where i am "the loneliest man" only in identity rather than meer physically. I feel that his pieces cross much deeper past his titles as well, where the viewer has to really dig for the meaning in the titles given because there is a hidden meaning relating back to the narrative in the piece. I feel that he also has given me a new found respect for titles of pieces, and i will think about how to approach my own piece and title.

http://www.alecsoth.com/