SectionsPhotographer's art honest picture of life
Kaycie Surrell
Issue date: 10/13/09 Section: Features
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Along with an assortment of photographs he has taken over the span of his professional career, Alec Soth will also share stories from the lives of the people he has photographed. He will try to answer questions and encourage students interested in following a similar path.
Soth is a member of Magnum Photos, an elite photo organization of 79 photographers that travel the world photographing the people they come across along the way.
His photographs project the mood of his subjects. His knack for capturing their emotion and eccentricities has allowed him to pull people out of the mundane and successfully combine their hidden beauty, sadness or excitement.
He gives personality and life to otherwise-unknown American people. "In the world of Web surfing and digital life, it becomes more and more interesting to me to be actually in the world, having actual encounters with actual people and places," Soth said.
He will also be showing an assortment of photos taken around Missouri.
"I recently did a project called "The Loneliest Man in Missouri,'" Soth said. "I chose Missouri because it's right in the middle of the country and I was photographing middle-aged men, and middle-management types of people."
These photos will project an understanding of older men that are undeniably alone. They are the people we tend to forget. They are the people that go to work, come home, and spend their evenings wondering what they could have done differently.
Soth chose Missouri for its central location, and his photographs will be based around the idea of centrality.
He has also been recognized for his work by the McKnight, Bush and Jerome photography foundations as well as received the Santa Fe prize for photography in 2003.
"My photography comes out of the traditions of Diane Arbus," Soth said. "It's as much about her encounter with subjects as it is about the subjects themselves. I definitely come out of that same tradition, because while it looks like documentary photography, in some ways it's encounter photography, this engagement with the world out there."
The event will be hosted by the Student Photographic Society and funded in part by the Student Organization Funding Allocation Council.
"We consider ourselves very fortunate to have the support of SOFAC because without their assistance, we would not be able to bring such a high caliber artist to MSU," art and design professor Jimmie Allen said. "We are proud to bring another Magnum photographer to our campus."
During the earlier portion of Soth's visit, he will be meeting with approximately 20 photography students and will be discussing their work and giving them guidance on their photography projects.
"Students benefit from listening to others speak about their work because they learn a bit about the thought process behind the speaker's photography," Student Photographic Society President Natasha Montgomery said. "Also, those who participate in student critiques have the opportunity to get an outside opinion about their photography and these things help photo students learn to speak and think about their own work in ways they might not have considered before."
His lecture will begin at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
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