Alec Soth

I believe that it was Robert Adams who said something to the effect that, the sad part about photography was that he could make more money talking about his photography than from his photographs.
This is the nature of creative work. Any successful photographer is running a small business, and up to a point, following the money. But it's a disorganized field, unlike the "trades", where labor unions have made it possible to specialize in one thing (carpentry, pipe fitting, etc.) and make a decent living. So you have to do what it takes.

If you look at any of the famous photographers whose work you see in the history books, almost all of them were working professionals on assignment. The exceptions, like Alfred Stieglitz who orated endlessly about how photography was ART, had private incomes. Edward Steichen made a fortune shooting for "Vanity Fair". Paul Strand had a movie camera, and made his living in the 1920s by filming college football games and selling copies. Edward Weston made his living as a commercial portrait photographer; so did Dorothea Lange and Imogen Cunningham. Ansel Adams was a working commercial/advertising/industrial photographer until he was in his 70s. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The point being that the "artists" did professional work to support and inform their creative work.

In 45 years in professional photography, I've been unusual in the I spent 25 years working as an industrial shooter for a couple of corporations, two years at a portrait studio chain, several stints as a custom lab technician, a fair amount of architecture work, etc. I've had gallery representation in New York (and sold some that way too). So a great deal of journeyman's work along with the creative side, and in fact I'm proud of that.
But were I to actively promote my personal work again I wouldn't emphasize those experiences- as I'd want the audience to concentrate on the photographs, and not my varied history. So if you wonder how Alec Soth et. al. make their livings, they're scrambling to find anything that fits and lets them do their personal work.

Alex Benjamin said:

Why compare artists with blue-collar workers when there's absolutely no relevent way to compare them?

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There are plenty of relevant ways to compare them. First, above all else, both are humans. They are engaged in the activity of making. Blue collar workers perform actual physical tasks that result in something tangible happening at the end of the activity - much like artists. Both realize ideas - the artist realizes his own idea, a blue collar worker mostly realizes someone else's. You would, however, be surprised at the level of creativity sometimes required to actually enact someone else's idea. In fact, if you want to find a group artists have less in common with, look at white-collar workers.

There are mainly two kinds of artists : those who have paying blue collar jobs, and the other category, appropriately called "starving artists", who are lucky if they can get away with stealing a slice from the pizza they are delivering.

Some of the linked current Soth work looks like a cheap pizza splattered on the wall, so maybe that's a clue. Hopefully he'll recover.

I see little real resemblance between his work, or his kind of "eye", and that of Eggleston. But I don't care much for Eggleston's later work either - he peaked a long time ago. Hard to say. Some notable photographers go through experimental phases with inevitable bellyflops;
then they move on.

DREW WILEY said:

I see little real resemblance between his work, or his kind of "eye", and that of Eggleston.

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I don't, either. I think Soth's photos are more like Shore's lunch photos


except I don't consider a lot of Soth's photos a complete waste of film. (I should say I don't find most of Shore's photos a waste of film, either - but the lunch photos...)

Yeah, Don, that does remind me of Shore's characteristic pumpkin warmtone versus poison green hue clash. Maybe one I reason I'm not magnetized to Soth's style is that much of it does seem 70's redux. There's nothing wrong with that - lots of things in the arts are cyclic - but it just isn't particularly interesting to me anymore. I frankly don't follow "trends" anymore either. Have my own thing to do.

Speaking of the 70's, it amazed me just how daring people like Meyerowitz and Misrach were to go out on a limb and spend a lot of money and effort on dicey cul de sac "artsy" projects which never got traction; but then, like I already said, they sprang back and found their groove. Shore was more predictable. I saw a lot of that work in its early stages. I never was a muddy color neg type myself, but more comfortable with the palette of chromes, and now Ektar. The best of Eggleston's early work was printed richly via dye transfer, which did far more justice to it than the current inkjet route; and now some of Meyerowitz's early work is being reprinted by the last remaining commercial DT lab on the planet, in Germany.

Don_ih said:

In fact, if you want to find a group artists have less in common with, look at white-collar workers.

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I'm a white-collar worker.

Alex Benjamin said:

I'm a white-collar worker.

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You also take photos. You're not fully defined by your job.

Patrick Robert James said:

One of the worst photographs I've seen by any photographer.

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There's one photo I really want to see. Any link or reference?

albireo said:

What do you like about his work? I skimmed through one of his books (Sleeping by the Mississippi I think it was called) in a local photo book shop and found nothing that appealed to me.

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If that was back when it just came out (aka. a first edition), then I'd advise you not to look up the current value ;-)

I mostly think of Alec Soth as an artist with photography as his medium of primary choice, maybe more so than a photographer.
He is absolutely the odd one in the Magnum group.

There are always elements of artistic process and reinvention in his work and this sometimes results in output that strongly reflects that, Broken Manual comes to mind - and probably also this new title from what I have read so far.

I understand that it is not to everyones liking, but there is a tremendous amount of generosity embedded in what he does.

If one includes his very intersting blogging in the mid 2000's, his email newsletters, his book reviews on YouTube etc. - one will see some very unusual and candid insights into the creative process of an artistic human with all its human flaws, insecurities and brilliance.
I imagine an aspiring artist will find comfort and reassurance in this, and those of us who are not aspiring artists, are allowed insights that may deepen our appreciation of his work and art in general.

I don't know of any other artist of his caliber or status who shares process considerations, insecurity and vulnerabilities so publicly and honestly*.

Most established successful artists seem to be too protective of their gained positions to open and honestly let us in on their artistic doubts and insecurities.

I appreciate Soth's body work, also in the cases when a book of his seems to require some appreciation from other aspects than that of the actual photographs.

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*Perhaps Robert Adams comes close, although he does it in a very different way.

Nitroplait said:

I mostly think of Alec Soth as an artist with photography as his medium of primary choice, maybe more so than a photographer.
He is absolutely the odd one in the Magnum group.

There are always elements of artistic process and reinvention in his work and this sometimes results in output that strongly reflects that, Broken Manual comes to mind - and probably also this new title from what I have read so far.

I understand that it is not to everyones liking, but there is a tremendous amount of generosity embedded in what he does.

If one includes his very intersting blogging in the mid 2000's, his email newsletters, his book reviews on YouTube etc. - one will see some very unusual and candid insights into the creative process of an artistic human with all its human flaws, insecurities and brilliance.
I imagine an aspiring artist will find comfort and reassurance in this, and those of us who are not aspiring artists, are allowed insights that may deepen our appreciation of his work and art in general.

I don't know of any other artist of his caliber or status who shares process considerations, insecurity and vulnerabilities so publicly and honestly*.

Most established successful artists seem to be too protective of their gained positions to open and honestly let us in on their artistic doubts and insecurities.

I appreciate Soth's body work, also in the cases when a book of his seems to require some appreciation from other aspects than that of the actual photographs.

---
*Perhaps Robert Adams comes close, although he does it in a very different way.

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Those youtube book reviews are something special and I hope he can find the time to resume them. What a library he has! I agree with you about Soth’s generosity; he seemingly holds no secrets and is a natural teacher, with a love of photo books that is infectious.

Nitroplait said:

I mostly think of Alec Soth as an artist with photography as his medium of primary choice, maybe more so than a photographer.
He is absolutely the odd one in the Magnum group.

There are always elements of artistic process and reinvention in his work and this sometimes results in output that strongly reflects that, Broken Manual comes to mind - and probably also this new title from what I have read so far.

I understand that it is not to everyones liking, but there is a tremendous amount of generosity embedded in what he does.

If one includes his very intersting blogging in the mid 2000's, his email newsletters, his book reviews on YouTube etc. - one will see some very unusual and candid insights into the creative process of an artistic human with all its human flaws, insecurities and brilliance.
I imagine an aspiring artist will find comfort and reassurance in this, and those of us who are not aspiring artists, are allowed insights that may deepen our appreciation of his work and art in general.

I don't know of any other artist of his caliber or status who shares process considerations, insecurity and vulnerabilities so publicly and honestly*.

Most established successful artists seem to be too protective of their gained positions to open and honestly let us in on their artistic doubts and insecurities.

I appreciate Soth's body work, also in the cases when a book of his seems to require some appreciation from other aspects than that of the actual photographs.

---
*Perhaps Robert Adams comes close, although he does it in a very different way.

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Beautifully put. This sums up my feelings about Soth's work and personality perfectly.

Nitroplait said:

I don't know of any other artist of his caliber or status who shares process considerations, insecurity and vulnerabilities so publicly and honestly*.

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....

Nitroplait said:

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*Perhaps Robert Adams comes close, although he does it in a very different way.

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Fascinating, truly fascinating. Out of curiosity, are you from the USA originally?

albireo said:

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Fascinating, truly fascinating. Out of curiosity, are you from the USA originally?

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No I am not.
If you ask because the two mentioned artists happens to be Americans, then it is just a reflection of limitations in my knowledge.
I hope there are more established artists who exhibits similar generosity.

Tangential to "working photographers". I do not remember the origin of this story, but a photog wrote something about he was in NYC and found himself meeting Mary Ellen Mark. He was very excited, walking into the studio room and saw Ms. Mark photographing for an advertisement for milk! He said something like "Oh wow, I thought you would be doing (exciting) personal project!" and Mark replied "How do you think I could afford to go on trips and do personal projects?"