Research: Alec Soth

Ever since I started the photography course I’ve been very keen to see (and learn from) the work of various art and social documentary photographers, such as well established Joel Meyerowitz, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Alec Soth, Peter Bialobrzeski, and many emerging photographers (I will definitely mention them within my next posts). The work, produced by above photographers, really fascinate me.  And their genre and type of photography appeal to me and, I think, I finally found the kind of photography I want to do.

In order to improve my photographic skills I set myself a task (personal project, but intended to cover digital photography module) to undertake several journeys along The River Thames, depicting people, who live and work on its banks, houses they live in, as well as other historical architectural structures, which have been standing beside The River for many centuries.

In this photographic project I’ll try to create the series of photographs that show deep connection between The River and people. I would like viewers, when they look through my images, to feel the sense of the place.

Throughout this project I will be researching the work of various photographers that influenced me at the very beginning of my study and continue to influence me at the present.

I’m going to start these research posts by talking about and showing the work of photographer Alec Soth, notable for large-scale photographs depicting the midwestern United States (Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, etc).

Alec Soth, born in 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is an American photographer famous for his photography that has a cinematic feel with elements of folklore that suggest a story behind the image.

Soth’s photography is firmly rooted in the tradition of Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and Stephen Shore. His depiction of the everyday confronts the ideals romanticized by American society; independence, freedom, religious devotion and individual expression. Through his 8x10 camera lens, Soth captures the extraordinary by exposing and utilizing the vernacular of the ordinary.

Sleeping by the Mississippi.

Shot over a period of 5 years, Sleeping by the Mississippi is a trip along America’s ‘Forgotten Coast’, the neglected banks of the country’s longest river. In 46 immaculately composed colour images, Soth travels from the frozen northern reaches of the river to the swamps of the Mississippi Delta.

Along the way, Soth shows landscapes, interiors and portraits. He alludes to religion, race, crime, sex and death, showing the lost hope, loneliness and unrealised dreams of the people he meets.