images copyright Alec Soth
The lecture that Alec Soth gave this evening was strangely indicative of the work that he presented -- charming, at times humorous, and a bit sad. At the beginning of his talk I began to feel empowered as a photographer only to find myself questioning the point of photographing anything. What is the point of photographing what has surely been photographed before? It is this question, however that should be leading me to produce something of interest, something of value, something that may have been seen before but has a new light shed upon it. When he described the nature of photographic narrative, it resonated within me as it shone a light on how I like to work that I had never considered, or rather, I had considered it, but it wasn't something that I really gave much thought to. The photographic narrative is a series that must be connected and is similar to a series of scattered dots. My work has consistently been like this, but with intent rather than happenstance. I also appreciated that he had other things going on in his imagery that the audience didn't necessarily have to know about (i.e. the connection between the sheep and the sleep study patients) but that didn't take away from the quality/accessibility of the work in most cases. Out of everything though, there was one thing that he said that really made the most sense. When asked how we maintain the integrity of the art of photography in a "democratic jungle" he stated that a great picture can be so easy, but it is a great series that is the true challenge.
