Priscilla (from the series The Last Days of W). Courtesy of the artist.
In 2004, visitors to the Whitney were greeted by “Charles,” a large-scale color photograph of a bespectacled man in coveralls standing in the wintry outside beside a house. In each of his gloved hands, he held miniature biplanes, and he did not smile. The image introduced museum-goers to that year’s biennial, but it also heralded the arrival of photographer Alec Soth (pronounced “Sōth”) to a larger public.
The art world welcomed him enthusiastically, heaping praise upon Sleeping by the Mississippi (Steidl, 2004) from which “Charles” was pulled. The book featured 46 photographs taken during a series of road trips along the Mississippi River and which were notable for their sumptuous detail and elegiac documentation of an iconic American byway. Niagra (Steidl, 2006); Dog Days, Bogota; and Paris/Minnesota followed soon after and, in the jittery election year of 2008, The Last Days of W, which Soth, tongue firmly in cheek, labeled his “Big Political Commentary.”
The young talent doesn’t restrict his work to photography books alone, however. He also shoots for the prestigious agency Magnum Photos, traditionally a photojournalist cooperative, and oversees Little Brown Mushroom (LBM), a blog and small press. (The modest initiative was represented at the New York Art Book Fair at PS1 in November.) Today Soth produces the Continental Picture Show series for the New York Times and is promoting Broken Manual, a collaboration with Lester Morrison that explores the places to which monks, survivalists, and the like retreat. The first U.S. survey of his work is also being shown at the Walker Art Center through January 2, 2011, and on Wednesday, December 8, he travels to New York to speak at FIT. New Yorkers can also catch Soth at The Strand on Thursday, December 9, when he’ll be signing books.
The man is busy, but he graciously took the time to talk to me last month over the phone. I was nervous beforehand, but he’s easy to talk to and we had a good time. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
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