Artist Research - Alec Soth

Artist Research - Alec Soth - Gathered Leaves Exhibition

On our Thursday session, we went up to London to go to an Alec Soth (born 1969) exhibition at the Science Museum in South Kensington. The exhibition showed four of his major works - Sleeping by the Missisippi (2004), Niagara (2006), Broken Manual (2010) and Songbook (2014).

Soth is a fine artist, photojournalist, blogger and self-publisher who explores many different forms of photography. The exhibition attempted to reflect the evolution of Soth's work over the years and many of his photographs reflect the American way of life. 

Three of Alec Soth's Images from the Exhibition -

Below are three images featured in the exhibition.

This image is from Soth's series called Broken Manual. Broken Manual is a series in which Soth explores the desire to run away. Soth became interested in the world of those who are detached from civilisation and soon discovered communications with hermits, monks and survivalists. Soth chose to photograph many of these individuals in their solitude and in many of his images, creates an unnerving feeling which helps to emphasise the separation between us and them. I liked this image when I was looking round at the exhibition as it presents exactly what the series is trying to portray. I like how the individual is far away as it means that the audience cannot source his identity which makes the whole photograph have an unnerving and slightly ambiguous feel to it. I like how the man appears very insignificant in size in comparison to the trees as this helps to present the connection between him and the nature. I like the colours within the image as again, they help to convey an unnerving, mysterious feel and as a result, present the difference between us and the people in the images. I also like the way that the image and the distance between us and the subject makes the audience wonder what has happened to the individual in the image to have made them have that chosen life of solitude. 

This image is from one of Soth's series called 'Niagara' and the image is called 'Misty 2005'. In the Niagara series, Soth explored the area around Niagara falls which has long been associated with love. The series is formed by images of the area, the falls, wedding venues and portraits. With his series, he attempted to juxtapose the idea of the almighty falls with the idea of fragile love. Although I do not feel this image is the best at portraying the overall intention of the series, it is still part of it, and was the one in which I found most appealing and striking during the exhibition. I like the simplicity of the image and especially like how the dark background draws the eye to the individual. The eye is drawn even more to the individual as she appears to be wearing a bright blue swimming cap. This then makes the audience puzzle about how the individual is feeling as she appears very solemn and gloomy in the photograph. When looking at the image at the exhibition, I wondered what it had to do with the idea of fragile love but as you think about the image and meaning more, I have come to wonder if the whole reason for the subject looking so solemn is due to perhaps 'failed love'.

This image is taken from Soth's 'Sleeping by the Mississippi' series and the image is known as 'Peter's Houseboat'. This series was based not far from Soth's birth place and within it, Soth travels a 2000mile course southwards towards the Gulf of Mexico, taking photographs at each location on his journey. The series includes photographs of the boyhood homes of the likes of Johnny Cash and Charles Lindbergh. The series attempts to capture a sense of imagination and dreams, something which Soth managed to capture in many of the photographs in the series. This was the image from the series which caught my eye in the exhibition and although simplistic in comparison to some of the others, I thought it was very effective and captured the mood and ideas of the series very well. Firstly, I like the composition of the photograph by means of the fact that the house is positioned to the right hand side of the image which allows a very blank space on the opposite side. I think this looks effective and in my opinion, the white of the snow captures the sense of imagination which Soth was attempting to portray in the images in the series. I feel the image may be trying to suggest the dreams of the person living in the house as well as capturing the idealistic and striking area around it. 

Evaluation

Overall, I like the images which were featured in Alec Soth's exhibition called 'Gathered Leaves'. I think they are all effective and each show a different and unique story. I also like how each of the images are thought provoking and each present a different type of lifestyle or show a different concept or idea. I found the photographs in the exhibition very inspirational and will use them to inspire my own photography. I especially liked Soth's landscape photos as well as portraits as I like both the compositions of them and the stories which they suggest and present.