A story about Alec Soth
I spent last Saturday at Photo L.A. and while there attended Alec’s lecture wherein learned that he is still known in some circles as “the sheep photographer” (in his early days he took a lot of portraits of sheep); sometimes uses impressive hand gestures to convince strangers to pose (well captured on video by an assistant) and doesn’t think of himself as a “deep photographer.” All in all an entertaining lecture about his work and where he is heading next.
Afterwards, I caught up with him at the Magnum photobooth to get a copy of “Niagara” autographed and chatted about polaroids (incidentally he’d just started to play with a Spectra and couldn’t get the flash to turn off), double exposures (I am not sure why I brought it up because it doesn’t appear in any of his work) and portraiture. In taking the photo above he asked if he could cover his eyes and I nodded. It is very hard not to like Soth, he is funny, insanely easy to talk to and approachable. Alec rocks! I wish him continued sucess in all of his work.
