Alec Soth

Alec Soth, born in 1969, is known to be a rather shy individual, who finds it awkward asking people to be in his shoots. This may be the reason why he is led to photograph loners and dreamers. He has collaborated with his seven year old daughter, whilst additionally photographing innovative images of strangers and even landscapes in America.

He chose to predominantly photograph people after planning to study staged photography. Diane Arbus had been a big inspiration for Soth, who captures unique black and white portraits.

He became wider known when he won worldwide artist recognition in 2004, for the publication of Sleeping By The Mississippi. This was a self printed book, comprising amazing portrays of landscapes/ interiors whilst he was on road trips along the river in Mississippi. He wanted to present feelings of isolation and neglect.

I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating

This is one of Soth’s most recent photobooks that he took the name from a line in the Wallace Stevens’ poem “The Gray Room,”. These images were taken all over the world, and are quite varied due to the fact they are based on a certain place or population.

‘Soth’s portraits and images of his subject’s surroundings involve an enquiry into the extent to which a photographic likeness can depict more than the outer surface of an individual, and perhaps even plumb the depths of something unknowable about both the sitter and the photographer.‘ – mackbooks.co.uk

Soth took around a years break from travelling and photography. When he returned to it, he decided to revisit the basic elements of photography. He moved to photographing people and their interiors, from capturing the epic landscapes of America.

He focused on photographing just interior spaces, even if it meant each image was different.

“my goal was the same: to simply spend time in the presence of another beating heart.” – Alec Soth

Analysis

This is the series of his that I have been inspired by. I want to capture my grandmother in this style. The image above especially caught my eye because he uses depth of field, and his foreground and background to create a unique and intriguing image to many of his others. The vivid colours that link, such as the sage and deep greens, create the overall feeling of the picture, reflecting the woman’s personality.

I think this will be hard to replicate, so I might have to take a different approach, however I will look at Soth’s other images to bring me to that conclusion.

Photoshoot Plan

What? I will still photograph my grandmother but I will focus less on objects, but more her and her in her space. I will photograph her in a few spaces such as the garden, her lounge, her bedroom chair. I might also photograph her looking at the archived images I will include in my photobook.

When? again I will go just after midday to make sure that the light is bright as I am going to attempt to take a photo of her through glass in her chair.

How? I will use my DSLR camera for this shoot because Soth’s images are quite modern. I won’t be able to choose the light with aperture using a film or polaroid camera. I might need to use a tripod depending on the light, and shutter speeds.

HIs portraits can be quite uncanny, placing his subjects alone stood in an open space. I might take some like these to experiment, however I might not use them in my photobook.