I’m back, maybe
It’s been a year and half since I made a blog post. Long story. Anyway, I’m excited about this event. If you are in San Francisco, please stop by.
Pop-Up show in Brooklyn!!!
Thursday, July 21st
7pm-11pm
The Lot Radio, 17 Nassau Ave.
The Winnebago Workshop Website
As the Winnebago Workshop prepares for our upcoming cross-country trip to New York, we’re excited to announce the launch of our new website: www.winnebagoworkshop.com
The Winnebago Workshop Kickstarter!
The Winnebago Workshop is an art school on wheels. With your help, it can keep traveling. More students can be given free access to life-changing experiences. More teachers on the road. More art. Find out more about the Winnebago Workshop and how you can support the development of young artists HERE.
We have great rewards for backers including a new book by Alec Soth that will only be available on Kickstarter.
Please go to our Kickstarter page and support the Winnebago Workshop. Thank you.
Which picture do you like more?
Two weeks ago I posted these two pictures on Instagram without any other explanation than the hashtag #InstagramLikeTest. What was going on?
Mick Brown, a writer for the Telegraph Magazine, was in the Twin Cites to profile me in advance of my show at Media Space in London. During our time together, he suggested we both make a picture of the same subject with our smartphones. Mick believed my picture would contain some sort of ‘magic’ that would be missing from his. I’ve worked with Mick in the past and admire him enormously, but I thought his hypothesis was harebrained.
Nevertheless, I nervously took him up on his offer and agreed to post both of our pictures on Instagram as a kind of blind survey. But of course it wasn’t blind. I knew that by posting my picture first it would garner more likes. While this issue might seem minor, I think it is quite significant. It speaks to one of the most prominent factors in photography – the context in which we see an image significantly affects the way we respond to it. Seeing Mick’s image second affected the reading of the image, just like seeing a picture in a subway is different than seeing it in a gallery (see my follow-up post in which the Photoshopped gallery image gained the most likes of all):
This isn’t to deny that there were other things at play specific to the images. But this has more to do with technology than any ability of mine to capture magic. In fact, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to make a deep (or deep looking) picture with the iPhone, I had the subject close her eyes. I knew that would help formalize the picture. Secondly, knowing that the wide angle lens of the iPhone distorts the face, I knew that being a bit further away would also aestheticize the image.
In short, I cheated because I’m a professional photographer and I didn’t want to lose to a writer. That said, I think there’s an interesting footnote that might might be instructive. After talking to the woman I photographed, Sara, I found out she was on her way to a job interview at the Dollar Store. This knowledge made her dress and general appearance particularly poignant. Had I been making a serious portrait of her, I would have followed her to the store and photographed her before and after the interview. While I don’t think I have the ability to create magic, I do think I’ve developed a nose for a visual story, or at least the annoying persistence to root one out of an ordinary situation. In the end, perhaps that is the real soul of photography.
Read Mick’s article this Saturday in the Telegraph Magazine.
The Winnebago Workshop
Big changes are underway here at Little Brown Mushroom. We are taking a hiatus from publishing to focus on our new experimental educational endeavor: The Winnebago Workshop – a mobile classroom that puts artists with teens to create multimedia stories.
This August we’re going to have our first week-long workshop. Each day we will meet at the St. Paul studios of Alec Soth and Little Brown Mushroom. After a morning brainstorming session, we’ll board our RV and explore. Through photographs, video, drawing and writing, participants will collect visual stories. Throughout the course of the week, we’ll have public projections of the stories on the side of the RV.
Who: Teen artists (age 16-18)
When: August 17-22, 2015. 9am – evening
Where: We’ll meet each day in the Midway area of St. Paul and then drive wherever the wind blows us.
Cost: Free
Apply HERE
Due by August 3rd at 5pm
Dreaming of Summer Nights
The beginning of March is fine time to start day dreaming about the simple pleasures that await us around the seasonal corner. In that spirit, the Carnegie Museum of Art recently published a short essay of mine on the cover picture of Summer Nights by Robert Adams. Read it HERE.
This also caused me to revisit a video homage I made to Summer Nights a couple of years ago for the Aperture Foundation. Watch it HERE.
Songbook by Alec Soth
I’m thrilled to announce the release of my new book and exhibition Songbook debuting at Sean Kelly Gallery in NYC (Jan. 29th, 2015), Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (Feb. 5th, 2015), Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis (Feb. 20th, 2015) and Loock Galerie in Berlin (April 30th).
Songbook is published by MACK (LBM is not selling copies). I’ll be doing my first book signing at Sean Kelly Gallery on Saturday, January 31st at 3pm.
– Alec Soth
Help support Colombian photography
© Aura Lambertinez
A little over a year ago I asked the question, What Is Happening in Contemporary Colombian Photography. Through the fantastic work of Tom Griggs and his blog fototazo, I’ve since learned a lot. One of the great things Tom does with his blog is help support non-prof microgrants for Colombian photographers. Yesterday he posted a request on the behalf of nine former microgrant recipients to travel from Colombian to the University of Iowa to participate in an intensive workshop in the summer of 2015.
I believe so much in the work Tom is doing to encourage up and coming Latin American photographers and hope you’ll consider supporting this project too. More info on the microgrant HERE
Make a tax-deductible contribution HERE
My favorite photobook of 2014
I’m a fan, and defender, of year-end lists. While these lists are subjective and at the mercy of fashion and favor-currying, they generally succeed in bringing deserved attention to quality work. They are also a lot of fun to write. Having put together lists of favorite photobooks in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 – I’ve found the process has helped me clarify my thinking about the medium.
Nevertheless, this year I decided I wouldn’t be making a list. My head is not in the game. I didn’t attend the New York Art Book Fair or Paris Photo and LBM is currently on hiatus from publishing while we explore other avenues (news coming soon). I’m still plenty excited about the possibilities of the photobook, but in truth most of my attention has been focused on the production of my upcoming book published by MACK.
So I’ve simply sat back and enjoyed the lists as they’ve poured in. As in the past, Photolia has put assembled a comprehensive list and QT Luong has put together a statistical meta-list. I was happy to see Max Pinckers book, Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty, in 2nd place. I’d actually chosen the book months ago as my favorite for Time Magazine. But since then another book has landed on my doorstep and taken my breath away.
DIE MAUER IST WEG! by Mark Power is my favorite book of 2014. The book has an incredible story, brilliant design, excellent printing and killer pictures. I confess that I’m not objective. Mark is a good friend. But I didn’t know about the publication of this book and was flabbergasted by it in every way.
DIE MAUER IST WEG! is the product of an incredibly lucky timing. On November 9th of 1989, Power made a trip to Berlin to give one last go at being a photographer before giving up to become a carpenter. After arriving in Berlin, he soon learned that the Berlin Wall would be open for free passage for the first time that very same day. The world was changed. So too was Power’s career.
DIE MAUER IST WEG! was published on November 9th 2014, twenty-five years to the day after its making. While this is a wonderful celebration of Power’s good timing, it is unfortunate timing when it comes to year-end lists. I’m certain very few reviewers had the opportunity to see this book. While I have no doubt the book will sell out (it is self-published in an edition of 1000), I hope it gets the critical celebration it deserves.
The best photo MFA program
The year-end lists of photobooks have started to come out and I was thrilled to see that Martin Parr chose Felipe Russo’s book, Centro. Felipe is yet another success story from the amazing Hartford Art School International Limited-Residency Photography MFA Program. Since its inception in 2010, I’ve participated in this program and have been astonished by the success of the students. This success is largely due to the vision of the program’s director, Robert Lyons. By hosting intensive sessions in New York City, San Francisco, Berlin as well as Hartford, Robert has helped give the students a global perspective. Additionally Robert and his team have continually emphasized the importance of the photobook. Upon graduation, each student produces a finished book dummy along with an exhibition. From this have come highly acclaimed published books by J. Carrier (MACK), Bryan Schutmaat (Silas Finch) and others.
Over the years I’ve visited dozens of MFA programs and have yet to find one that rivals Hartford in the quality of its graduates. I’m grateful to be associated with the program and am eager to see who comes on board in the future.
To apply for the program (due January 15), go here: http://www.hartfordphotomfa.org/content/admissions
LBM Holiday Sale
SALE From now until Dec. 1 we’re selling Such Appetite for only $9.
Peeking into the combustible sublime of America’s outer-urban colonies, Such Appetite pairs Charlie White’s intimate study of a teenage girl with poems by Stephanie Ford in a twenty-first century meditation on beauty and banality, adolescence and sprawl. More info HERE.
$9
In the week since it’s been released, we’ve sold nearly half of the copies of Georgia. This is the 7th and final in the Dispatch series and all other issues are sold out. More info HERE.
Shipping now: $18
“A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about.” – Richard Avedon
Who is Frank? Create your own album of this beguiling westerner traveling in Japan. Each copy of the The Frank Album contains a unique selection of 19 anonymous photographs and 12 texts. In the process of assembling this book, the viewer is asked to question how we piece together our understanding of strangers.
Each copy of The Frank Album includes a separate work by Alec Soth including a unique c-print entitled Frank Is Not My Father.
The final Dispatch
It has been an incredible journey for our little homegrown newspaper, but the 7th edition of the LBM Dispatch, Georgia, will be our last. From upstate New York to Silicon Valley, we crisscrossed the country collecting a compendium of American faces, voices, and places. “The Dispatch reported the news the way a paper would if Sherwood Anderson were the owner, Raymond Carver the copy chief and Emily Dickinson the sports editor,” wrote the New York Times, ” a vision of 21st-century life deeply strange and strangely deep.”
No place in our journeys showed greater depth than Georgia. Over two sweltering, bug-swarming weeks in July, the LBM Dispatch covered 2,400 miles in Georgia, exploring the State’s diverse landscapes, histories, and narratives that were alternately harrowing and inspiring. From the Civil War to the last beleaguered Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo Island, the result is a sort of see-sawing time-lapse portrait of a region that continues to straddle the past and the present, and that seems to exist in a state of conflicted nostalgia and perpetual reconstruction.
Shipping now: $18 (please note that all other editions have sold out and we don’t expect Georgia to last long). More info HERE
LBM Dispatch #7: Georgia (special edition)
A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Georgia Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.
The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.
LBM Dispatch #6: Texas Triangle (special edition)
A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Texas Triangle Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.
The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.
Surfing in Istanbul
Fishing, like photography, is an art that calls forth intelligence, concentration, and delicacy. – Stephen Shore
If you’re having a bad day, catch a wave. – Frosty Hesson
I’m currently in Istanbul on non-picture-taking business. As often happens when I travel, I’ve been questioning my role as a photographer. Years ago I used to pack a big film camera when I traveled somewhere new. Nowadays I rarely bring anything but an iPhone. But when I’m in Turkey rather than Tampa, something kicks in and I start feeling guilty.
The first thing I saw when I walked out of my hotel in Istanbul was the Galata Bridge at sunset. The scene was as corny as a postcard, but I snapped an iPhone picture anyway. This image is a meaningless document of the place. It is also a pretty useless document of my experience. But like every tourist, the activity scratches some sort of itch.
It occurs to me that making snapshots isn’t that different in spirit from the fishing being done on Galata Bridge. Dozens of fishermen are lined up shoulder to shoulder. Strolling by, I only saw a few small fish in a handful of buckets. It is hard to imagine that this meager bounty is the goal of their effort.
Just as I doubt a professional fly-fisherman would want to drop his line with dozens of others off a bridge, I resisted giving myself over to a platform like Instagram. But after a long period of evasion, I finally began experimenting a year ago. I found Instagram surprisingly pleasurable. It felt good to casually dip my hook in the water with everyone else.
But old habits die hard, and I probably take my Instagram account too seriously. While few people ever look at a post after 24 hours, I’m still aware that these picture-minnows are floating around out there.
This is why I was curious to try the ephemeral platform of Snapchat – a concept entirely antithetical to art photography. Whereas an artist tries to preserve a moment for the future, a Snapchat disappears immediately after being viewed.
After a few weeks of goofing around with Snapchat, I’ve come to find that the fishing analogy doesn’t quite fit. Without the element of preservation, the process is closer to surfing. Some days might provide a better string of pictures, but in the end there is nothing to show for it but the memory of the journey.
LBM Dispatch #5: Colorado (special edition)
A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Colorado Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.
The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.
LBM Dispatch #4: Three Valleys (special edition)
A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Three Valleys Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.
The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.
LBM Dispatch #3: Michigan (special edition)
A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Michigan Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.
The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.
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