One of the most intriguing photos I've seen in a while. Alec Soth has advertised the work from Magnum's first ever portfolio review on his website and I have to say that this photo inspires me more than just about anything I saw from the twenty three photographers who's work he posted for review. Its not that their work is bad, quite the contrary, technically the photographs are proper and correct I think, but unfortunately they are also quite banal. I guess its hard to compare one photo like this to a series of other shots that are trying to convey something through their unity as a whole. And so hopefully when he's finished his month-long dumpster dive for textbooks and discussions and textbooks on discussions, etc, he'll have time to put together a series as such. Until then, we'll just have to enjoy his photos one by one.
A viewer's response to the works posted for review:
empty rooms, dilapidated buildings; portraits of stiff people standing staring down the barrel of a large format camera… Alec you’ve inspired a generation of cliques without being one yourself; a successful template that thousands have copied. the best advice for anyone in any field is to be different, to find your own voice. probably means spending less time looking at other peoples photography. less time looking for a subject and more time observing yourself.
...just so very little art hits the spot; my aesthetic conditioning obviously comes into play. i just find particularly with photography, because it is so ubiquitous it has to carry an emotional punch for any semblance of it to remain with you and unfortunately -or fortunately- that that has to even be translated through a computer screen; these are the times we live in. i think why so many of these folios feel flat to me is because I can’t feel the person who made them in the image. a lot of the images feel unemotional. you could go on endlessly about what makes a good image but for me what is paramount it is the love for the mystery of life and not the art. a love for the mystery of life is something that is lived and if you’re lucky the spin off is art.
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
Leonard Cohen
