|
Go beyond the mainstream.
Alec Soth: Black Line of Woods
August 8, 2009, through January 3, 2010
In the tradition of photographers like Walker Evans, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, Minneapolis-based photographer Alec Soth seeks to expose and elevate ordinary aspects of American life. His poetic images capture the harsh beauty of disenfranchised people and places, underscoring the realities of living in such a vast and varied country.
Soth first gained international attention with his series Sleeping by the Mississippi, which was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. The series featured images captured over a five-year period, as he traveled down the Mississippi River with an 8 x 10 camera.
In January 2007 the High invited Soth to participate in its Picturing the South commission series. For this distinctive initiative the High commissions established and emerging photographers to produce new work inspired by the American South. Past participants include Dawoud Bey, Emmet Gowin, Sally Mann, Richard Misrach and Alex Webb, whose commissions have all been added to the High's steadily growing permanent collection.
Exploring spiritual and hermetic life in the rural South, Soth traveled extensively throughout the region, capturing an unusual cast of characters living outside mainstream society. These photographs center on the landscape, flora and fauna of the Deep South, and the people who choose to live on the margins (hermits, monks, campers and survivalists) in an array of manmade structures.
The project was inspired by the writings of Flannery O'Connor, the Georgian writer whose Southern Gothic style explored social issues and revealed the cultural character of the American South. Like O'Connor’s stories, Soth's photographs combine warmth and insight with narrative elements that convey the unique spirit of the region.
Five questions with artist Alec Soth >>
|
