Alec Soth
[Photographer, b. 1969, Minneapolis, Minnesota, lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.]
Photography is a frustrating medium. Fragmentary, frozen and mute—photographs can never match the immersive pleasures of film or music. So why bother with film sets and lighting crews? The simple process of making pictures is rich enough.
Photography is a language. To communicate, you need to learn the language. The history of photography is like the vocabulary and influence is like a dialect. One shouldn’t be embarrassed about having an accent.
The art of photography is imagining: “I could have had this encounter with the world.”
I’ve never been comfortable photographing people I know, myself included. I guess I prefer the mystery of strangers.
With my photography, I’m a big believer in serendipity. The goal is to find the flow of things.
Fun is important. You should like the process and the subject. If you are bored or unhappy with your subject it will show up in the pictures.
My big theory is that [photography] doesn’t function as a narrative, but the photographer takes the place of the protagonist in the story, and you take the place of the photographer.
