Alec Soth (born 1969) is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis. Soth makes “large-scale American projects” featuring the midwestern United States. New York Times art critic Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he has made a “photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers” and photographs “loners and dreamers”. His work tends to focus on the “off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America” according to The Guardian art critic Hannah Booth.

hen he photographs people, Soth feels nervous at times. He said: “My own awkwardness comforts people, I think. It’s part of the exchange.” When he was on the road, he’d have notes describing types of pictures he wanted taped to the steering wheel of his car. One list was: “beards, birdwatchers, mushroom hunters, men’s retreats, after the rain, figures from behind, suitcases, tall people (especially skinny), targets, tents, treehouses and tree lines.  With people, he’ll ask their permission to photograph them, and often wait for them to get comfortable; he sometimes uses an 8×10 camera. He tries to find a “narrative arc and true storytelling” and pictures in which each picture will lead to the next one.

Soth has been photographing different parts of the US since his first book, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published in 2004. His second book, Niagara, was published in 2006. One of his photos is of a woman in a bridal gown sitting outside what appears to be a motel; he describes having made an arrangement with a particular wedding chapel in Niagara Falls which let him take pictures of couples getting married, by photographing them after their weddings.

Link to my project: Throughout my future project, I would like to include some portraits of myself and my dad, brother and mum. I think that deciding to attempt to take images in Alec Soth’s style will make successful and creative outcomes and I can link them to other image that will be in my project, as I would also like to include old family photos. Considering the layout of my final photobook I would like to place photographs that have been inspired by Soth next to old family images that have been found in albums, this will be to show the affect time and environment has had on my family.

Sleeping By The Mississippi

Much has been written about Alec Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi. First published in 2004, it is a landmark publication in the Magnum photographer’s career, which propelled him to international recognition and notoriety. First editions of the photobook are highly prized items today. At a talk in London in 2017, in conversation with Sean O’Hagan, Soth reflected on the work, almost 15 years on, and how he began to make what would eventually become the tightly-edited tome, Sleeping By the Mississippi.

“I was a morose, introverted young man,” says Soth of his early years, identifying with a version of a Midwestern American sensibility that was “dark and lonely”. Working in a photo-processing lab on other people’s pictures throughout his early 20s, he had (almost) given up the ambition to become a famous artist, yet it was this very relaxation of his personal ambition that eventually allowed him the degree of freedom necessary to accept the influence of the American tradition of road trip photography in his own work – to stop pretending he was reinventing the wheel, to carry on the tradition and make it his own. More detailed images of this book can be found: Alec Soth | Sleeping by the Mississippi.

He began to follow the Mississippi River in his car, driving from place to place, letting himself progress towards locations he had vaguely researched and “using the river as a route to connect with people along the way.” These were the early days of the web and the development of his process ran parallel to the growth of the internet. “It was like web surfing in the real world” he says, “it was like trying to ride a wave.”

“A miraculous time in my life,” is how Soth describes this process. He felt warmly welcomed in the region; he was allowed into the intimacy of people’s homes. Hyper-alive to the world, Soth had in fact just spent an intense month-long period with his mother-in-law, who had become very ill. He lived with her in her house as she died.

Image Analysis: In my opinion, this is one of Soth’s most successful images of all time, this is because of the clarity and message behind the image. I like the feeling of isolation within this image, as it makes the viewer focus on all different parts of the image within time, the fact this image has a sense of quietness means that all different aspects/ areas of it can be appreciated and analysed. Along with this, the coolest tones within the image mean that there is a sense of loneliness and isolation, and this is added to by the fact that there is no people or animals in this image. I really like how the focus of the image is on the gas station itself and how the brighter lights contrast with the title of the book. The lightness contradicts with the word “sleeping”, as they are not associated with each other, this creates contrast of the narrative of the book itself, and comes away from the original concept of the book.

Below I have included a screenshot of the mood board I have created to demonstrate my first ideas when it comes to addressing the theme of ‘Simple and Complex’ which is our new exam project. Making this mindmap helped me to consider my first ideas and how they could start to happen, and the ideas in my head started to link to real life ideas, objects and structures. I really liked how broad this theme is, as it can be considered in a lot of different ways, and any images that I could take could even be linked to the concept of ‘simple’ or ‘complex’.

The Concept of ‘Simple’ Photography

I have looked through many images in order to come up with this mood board which addresses and helps me visualise what the idea of ‘simple’ looks like. Throughout this I have focus on the idea that either the style of photography is simple, or the objects or landscapes are simple in themselves. I really like the fact that searching through the internet to try and find images really does inspire me, and most importantly help me visual my ideas.

How will ‘Simple’ be present in my future project? I would like to take very simple images of complex and intricate structures and objects, as I would prefer to focus on this rather then the genre of portraiture. I think that me exploring simple kinds of photography, maybe like the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher as there concept is very interesting and could relate to taking photographs of any objects that I am interested in. I would like to take simple images of different aspects of nature, such as farm animals and flowers/ plants. I think that displaying my images in a typology will emphasise the fact that natural substances and complex in themselves, but within themselves they are considered to be simple formations. This will create the question of is nature simple of complex.

The Concept of ‘Complex’ Photography

When first considering the idea of complex images, its thought that these types of images take more application and technical skill. However, I think that taking photographers of controversial and not typical “complex” ideas is a more analytical way to approach this exam project. For example, some landscapes are not seen to be complex, however they may contain a lot of history, or be the home for a lot of natural life, and I think that consideration for things that do not appear complex but actually are is very relevant to my project.

How will ‘Complex’ be present in my future project? I would to focus on mostly the structural complexity of places/ objects that appear very simple, but are in fact very complex. For example, the concept of a flower has good connotations, along with them looking very simple. However, they some of them have very complex structures, with each part of these plants having very different but still vital functions throughout. I think that this concept is very interesting as images are very much viewed differently when it comes to the perceptive of the viewer. Furthermore, I would like to focus on the idea that perspective makes photographs either appear simple or complex, and this will be demonstrated by me taking images or very simple objects and educating people on how they can be complex and intricate too.

Introduction

A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system of language and/or thought by which two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. Binary opposition is a key concept in structuralism, a theory of sociology, anthropology, and linguistics that states that all elements of human culture can only be understood in relation to one another and how they function within a larger system or the overall environment.

With his belief in structuralism, Levi-Strauss asserted that the human mind classifies things through binary opposition, the contrasts between two opposite things. It is this binary opposition that leads cultures to think in terms of good and bad. Additionally, Levi-Strauss studied many myths and legends from all around the world and came to the conclusion that we make sense of the worlds using binary opposition. He found that narratives are arranged around the concept of binary opposites.

Some Examples:

• Hot and Cold
• Wealth and Poverty
• Win and Loss
• Female and Male
• Devotion and Abandonment
• Positive and Negative
• Colour and Monochrome
• Natural and Manmade
• Kind and Inconsiderate
• Old and New

In many binary opposition examples, people are broadly divided into two groups. This can create an ”us versus them” situation where people see themselves as fundamentally different from another group of people. Often, this kind of thinking gives rise to the concept of ”the other” where some people see other people as abnormal, unnatural, dangerous, or fundamentally different. The concept of the other is often used in literature as a way to explore characters, their motivations, and the broader societal implications of those motivations. 

A problem with binary opposites is that they may oftentime perpetuate negative stereotypes. For example, if the binary opposite was man vs. woman, according to gender stereotypes, the man may be portrayed to be ‘strong’ whereas the woman is the ‘damsel in distress’. It is important to see how these stereotyes have changed in media forms over time. Also, in more recent years, binary opposites are not so clear cut – they can be complex and there may be multiple binary opposites between two characters.

My Future Project

For my future project we are going to be focusing on the idea of ‘Simple or Complex’, I would like to approach this concept by going for a walk from my mums house in St Saviour, to my dads house in St Clement. This normally takes about 40 minutes and will allow me to take photographs that will link to memories I have during my childhood, as we used to walk this route together sometimes. In addition to this, I will be taking portraits of my mum, brother and dad to put into my future photobook, as I think creating a book for this project will increase the successfulness of my initial concept and I hope this turns out well.

I would like to also include old family album pictures, ones that include images of my dad in my mums current house, as this will incorporate a nostalgic and very personal aspect to my project, this is important as the concept of going on a walk will be made more interesting by including images of my family in special locations we visited frequently when I was a child. Along will all of the personal elements, I would like to still really focus on creating outcomes that are landscapes images, as they are one of my strengths and I do find them interesting to take. The walk will also include aspects and close up shots of natural life and

I think the the concept of ‘Simple or Complex’ is one which can be approached very deeply and can have a lot of meaning connected to it. It just depends of your mindset and perceptive which means that you can either comprehend photographs as simple or complex, and this study challenges that idea in itself.