NOWNESS || Photographers in Focus: Alec Soth

Photographers in Focus: Alec Soth

Isolation and silent unrest is at the heart of this visual storyteller’s tale of contemporary America.

Sleeping by the Mississippi, the monograph published in 2004 by photographer Alec Soth, was a landmark photobook that established him as one of the most evocative chroniclers of contemporary life in America. 

Embarking on a series of spontaneous road trips along the Mississippi river, Soth’s formative work follows in the tradition of the ‘on-the-road’ photography of Robert Frank, Walker Evans and Stephen Shore, capturing the spellbinding landscapes, eclectic communities and individuals that exist outside of the global spotlight.

In this special edition of Photographers in Focus, commissioned with Magnum Photos in support of their online learning platform, Magnum Learn, filmmaker Joppe Rog hits the road with Soth as he seeks out exciting topographies and inspiring faces around his home state of Minnesota.

The episode unveils some of Soth’s most iconic images, such as Peter's Houseboat (2002), an intriguing large-format image centered around clothes hung on a drying line in the middle of a snow-covered expanse—a picture that invites viewers to contemplate isolation and home comforts. Misty (2005), his compelling portrait of a woman wearing a swimming cap and full face of make-up, was captured with such exacting shallow depth of field that her ears, shoulders and collarbone blur into the distance, rendering her all the more enigmatic.

Soth’s artistry lies in his ability to make the most modest images cavort with light and texture. The photographer’s most recent book, I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating (2019), includes Leopold (2018); an image of an elderly man with a stick-and-poke abdomen tattoo splayed across a sofa—his expression a heady mixture of fragility and defiance.

All these images, liked many of his others, invite audiences to consider topics such as illness, art, death, religion and politics across the States. 

Soth became a member of Magnum Photos in 2008, an event that marked his power to evoke the ineffable and produce serene images tempered by silent unrest.

Produced in partnership with Magnum Photos to celebrate the launch of Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling, Magnum’s second online photographic learning course.

Have a peek below.

Nowness - Photographers in Focus: Alec Soth from Joppe Rog on Vimeo.