« The gain plan | Main | Pointing the finger »
November 16, 2007
Alec Soth
I recently came across a link to the website of American photographer, Alec Soth. From Minneapolis, Minnesota, he is best known for his large format work, particularly his haunting portraits.
Check out Dog Days, a collection of photographs he made while in Bogotá, Colombia. There is something very disturbing about these images of stray dogs, untidy bedrooms and empty streets. Like fellow Magnum shooter Alex Webb, Soth's images are ostensibly photojournalism, yet they always seem to provoke more questions than provide answers.
In the case of Dog Days, Soth and his wife had gone to Colombia to adopt a baby girl. During the two months that it took for all of the paperwork to be completed, Soth went out and shot photos. He writes, "Carmen's birthmother gave her a book filled with letters, pictures and poems. 'I hope that the hardness of the world will not hurt your sensitivity," she wrote, "When I think about you I hope that your life is full of beautiful things.' With those words as a mission statement, I began making my own book for Carmen. In photographing the city of her birth, I hope I've described some of the beauty in this hard place."
Soth has an amazing body of work, and there is plenty of it online. He also has a blog where he writes about his photography, keeps poems and discusses the work of other photographers. Well worth a look.
Posted by Marcus at November 16, 2007 2:42 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.bylingo.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/179