Edited by Siri Engberg. Interview by Bartholomew Ryan. Text by Geoff Dyer, Barry Schwabsky, Britt Salvesen, Siri Engberg, August Kleinzahler.
From Here to There: Alec Soth's America is the first exhibition catalogue to feature the full spectrum of the work of Alec Soth, one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography, whose compelling images of everyday America form powerful narrative vignettes. Featuring more than 100 of the artist's photographs made over the past 15 years, the book includes new critical essays by exhibition curator Siri Engberg, curator and art historian Britt Salvesen and critic Barry Schwabsky, which offer context on the artist's working process, the photo-historical tradition behind his practice and reflections on his latest series of works. Novelist Geoff Dyer's "Riverrun"--a meditation on Soth's series Sleeping by the Mississippi--and August Kleinzahler's poem "Sleeping It Off in Rapid City" contribute to the thoughtful exploration of this body of work. Also included in the publication is a 48-page artist's book by Soth titled The Loneliest Man in Missouri, a photographic essay with short, diaristic texts capturing the banality and ennui of middle America's suburban fringes, with their corporate office parks, strip clubs and chain restaurants. This full-color publication includes a complete exhibition history, bibliography and interview with the artist by Bartholomew Ryan. Alec Soth was born in 1969 and raised in Minnesota, where he continues to live and work. He has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation (1999, 2004) and Jerome Foundation (2001), was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and was short-listed for the highly prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. His first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published in 2004 to critical acclaim. Since then Soth has published Niagara (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007), Dog Days, Bogotá (2007) and The Last Days of W (2008). He is a member of Magnum Photos.
Featured image is Alec Soth’s photograph Sugar’s, Davenport, Iowa, from 2002.
“The accumulated weight of what has gone before obliges Soth to shift sideways, to move forward by drifting laterally. Traces of earlier photographic projects float throughout his work, changed by their journey…It is, in other words, not just a place that Soth is photographing; it’s also, unavoidably, a tradition that extends up to the present (and continues to be extended as Soth himself – already! – becomes an influence). That autumnal chair in Sugar’s place looks as if it is still warm from – still bears the imprint of – Eggleston’s sitting in it (photographically speaking).”
Quote is from Geoff Dyer’s essay “Riverrun” in From Here to There : Alec Soth’s America.
"While at Sarah Lawrence, Soth had a moment of recognition about photography's potential relevance for him while listening to a lecture by Joel Sternfeld, who was teaching there at the time. Captivated by Sternfeld's images of the American vernacular landscape, he found himself particularly fixated on a slide of the photographer's van, the vehicle that had enabled the pictures. The notion that 'the art [could be] the experience of moving through the world,' and the photograph the residue of this act was a turning point in his thinking about process. In the spring of 1991, he began taking pictures in earnest, making his first roadtrip along the Mississippi River with his girlfriend, Rachel, and his dog."
FORMAT: Hbk, 8 x 10 in. / 288 pgs / 150 color / 40 b&w / 48 pg artist insert. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $70 GBP £53.00 ISBN: 9780935640960 PUBLISHER: Walker Art Center AVAILABLE: 11/30/2010 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Walker Art Center. Edited by Siri Engberg. Interview by Bartholomew Ryan. Text by Geoff Dyer, Barry Schwabsky, Britt Salvesen, Siri Engberg, August Kleinzahler.
From Here to There: Alec Soth's America is the first exhibition catalogue to feature the full spectrum of the work of Alec Soth, one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography, whose compelling images of everyday America form powerful narrative vignettes. Featuring more than 100 of the artist's photographs made over the past 15 years, the book includes new critical essays by exhibition curator Siri Engberg, curator and art historian Britt Salvesen and critic Barry Schwabsky, which offer context on the artist's working process, the photo-historical tradition behind his practice and reflections on his latest series of works. Novelist Geoff Dyer's "Riverrun"--a meditation on Soth's series Sleeping by the Mississippi--and August Kleinzahler's poem "Sleeping It Off in Rapid City" contribute to the thoughtful exploration of this body of work. Also included in the publication is a 48-page artist's book by Soth titled The Loneliest Man in Missouri, a photographic essay with short, diaristic texts capturing the banality and ennui of middle America's suburban fringes, with their corporate office parks, strip clubs and chain restaurants. This full-color publication includes a complete exhibition history, bibliography and interview with the artist by Bartholomew Ryan.
Alec Soth was born in 1969 and raised in Minnesota, where he continues to live and work. He has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation (1999, 2004) and Jerome Foundation (2001), was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and was short-listed for the highly prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. His first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published in 2004 to critical acclaim. Since then Soth has published Niagara (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007), Dog Days, Bogotá (2007) and The Last Days of W (2008). He is a member of Magnum Photos.
