photo la
Last weekend, I went to photo la, a huge photo fair with over 70 exhibitors ranging from fotovision to Magnum. I was there mainly to hear a lecture by Alec Soth, but I bought a ticket to the fair, too, just to see what all the fuss was about. I hit the lecture first (more on that in a minute), and then I went to the fair, which was seriously overwhelming. Booths crammed into every available corner, massive prints on the walls, people swarming around them. I only spent a few minutes there—long enough to get the last copy of the second printing (now out of print) of Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississipi (Steidl) from D.A.P. I had to pay an arm and a leg and another arm for it—because it was autographed (and did I mention out of print?), neither of which really mattered to me—but it was worth it. I already have his second book, NIAGARA, and you know how you just find someone—a writer, a photographer, a whatever—whose work you like so much that you want to follow it from the beginning? Well, I came to his work just recently, and it somehow mattered to me that I have a copy of his first book, especially after hearing him talk.
Yeah, so, on that talk: First off, the hotel conference room was packed. People milling around, finding friends who’d saved them seats, and then all of a sudden, someone was on the microphone, and it was Soth saying something about how most of these lectures start with 20 minutes of someone else introducing the photographer, listing all his accomplishments and making him feel amazing, but he knew that we didn’t care about any of that, so he’d just get started. And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of his talk. He showed a photo of himself in high school (to show what a geek he was), talked about his shyness, said he started out in art school wanting to be a painter, showed one of his paintings (to show what a bad painter he was), all by way of explaining how he came to photography. He talked about his early, not-so-successful projects (and how he came to be known in certain circles of Minneapolis as the “sheep photographer”—county fair, sheep, Rembrandt lighting). And then he talked about Sleeping by the Mississippi and NIAGARA, how he plans a project, how he executes it, how things fall into place (or don’t). He spoke about the luxury of not having an audience, of just being able to photograph what you’re drawn to, without having to answer to professors or other students or critics of any sort. There’s great freedom in that, he said, and I got it.
I loved that he had a sense of humor about himself and his photographs—he didn’t hesitate to show us the things that worked along with the things that didn’t. So many people—in any field—want to focus on their successes, but what I got out of the hour or so that he talked was a sense of the evolution of it all. He’s had all kinds of success in the past few years, but it didn’t start out that way, and he let us see proof of that. I don’t know if it’s because he’s from Minnesota and I’m from Michigan and I recognized that whole Midwestern-sensibility thing or what, but his lack of pretension was encouraging.
And good thing I went there first—it got me through the experience of buying a book from D.A.P.
Conversation with sales guy:
Yeah, so, on that talk: First off, the hotel conference room was packed. People milling around, finding friends who’d saved them seats, and then all of a sudden, someone was on the microphone, and it was Soth saying something about how most of these lectures start with 20 minutes of someone else introducing the photographer, listing all his accomplishments and making him feel amazing, but he knew that we didn’t care about any of that, so he’d just get started. And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of his talk. He showed a photo of himself in high school (to show what a geek he was), talked about his shyness, said he started out in art school wanting to be a painter, showed one of his paintings (to show what a bad painter he was), all by way of explaining how he came to photography. He talked about his early, not-so-successful projects (and how he came to be known in certain circles of Minneapolis as the “sheep photographer”—county fair, sheep, Rembrandt lighting). And then he talked about Sleeping by the Mississippi and NIAGARA, how he plans a project, how he executes it, how things fall into place (or don’t). He spoke about the luxury of not having an audience, of just being able to photograph what you’re drawn to, without having to answer to professors or other students or critics of any sort. There’s great freedom in that, he said, and I got it.
I loved that he had a sense of humor about himself and his photographs—he didn’t hesitate to show us the things that worked along with the things that didn’t. So many people—in any field—want to focus on their successes, but what I got out of the hour or so that he talked was a sense of the evolution of it all. He’s had all kinds of success in the past few years, but it didn’t start out that way, and he let us see proof of that. I don’t know if it’s because he’s from Minnesota and I’m from Michigan and I recognized that whole Midwestern-sensibility thing or what, but his lack of pretension was encouraging.
And good thing I went there first—it got me through the experience of buying a book from D.A.P.
Conversation with sales guy:
“Can I buy this?”Criminy.
“Uh, yeah, that’s what we’re doing here.”
“Okay, do you take—”
“We take everything.”
Copyright © 2007 Liz Kuball
Labels: Alec Soth, books, photo la, photographers
posted by Liz at 10:24 PM
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