Alec Soth
Born in 1969 · United States
Encounters as the substance of a photographic narrative.
The story
Alec Soth creates groups of portraits, landscapes and interiors, often connected to his travels. Sleeping by the Mississippi brought him international recognition. He continued with Niagara, Broken Manual and Songbook, giving a central role to the book and the sequence. The people he encounters do more than illustrate a place: they open up stories that the image leaves partly outside the frame.
Understanding the work
Read one photograph and then its neighbour. A landscape, an object and a portrait can produce a narrative without an explicit relationship of cause and effect.
Key works and series
Sleeping by the Mississippi; Niagara; Broken Manual; Songbook.
Sources & further exploration
Works in collections.
1 recordsPhotographs to explore on museum and library websites, with titles, dates and processes. Each link opens the collection record and its image where one is available.
