Niagra Series
Portraits
Fashion Magazine
All images copyright Alec Soth
So Alec Soth made a couple of things clear.
1. I am only "Sort of" educated about photography.
2. Most photographers who make films make really bad films.
3. Editorial photography is drowning. We should not talk about it.
4. His last name rhymes with "both"
I enjoyed his lecture, it was light hearted at points and comical, the home movie by Lee Friedlander was lovely, and set the stage for his idea of The Great American Road Trip. I've always had a hard time with this concept, go out drive, just go, and photograph everything. (democratically) Even the most mundane things can be interesting. I think this just over saturates our already soaked photographic world. It seems at direct opposition with the Narrative Machete he spoke about. I did really connect with his ideas about using the right tools for each project. He described his use of the 8X10 so eloquently, that he is not photographing people, but the space in between him and the person. That he can stare directly into their eyes without them feeling so scrutinized, how the cape conceals his gaze and the length of time it takes for a large format image to be composed and taken allows the sitter to relax, turn inwards and become less self conscious. I watched a video on him earlier today in which he expanded upon this idea talking about how beautiful and image on ground glass is, how he'd almost like to photograph that. I also found his stance on Crewdson's images eye opening. He said that they are not a narrative, they merely suggest a narrative, that his images create an actual story.
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