Documentary style photographer Alec Soth has captured images all throughout North America, South America and Asia, but he finds Southern people and culture especially fascinating.
"Once I get, whatever it is, south of St. Louis, as a photographer, it becomes so much easier," Soth says. For him, it's the warmth of people that draws him here to do large scale photography projects in the flyover states -- or "the big middle," as he calls it. "I can't walk down the street and not have an amazing encounter with someone. That's not true in the north or many places ... so it's just remarkable, the openness and generosity of people."
Art Night Out: Rock & Roll on the American Road and Spotlight Talk
WHEN — 8-11 p.m. Saturday and 5-6 p.m. Sunday
WHERE — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville
COST — $10 for Art Night Out; free for Spotlight Talk
INFO — crystalbridges.org
His past work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, Fortune and Newsweek. Currently some of his photographs are exhibited in "The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip" at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Soth will share his unique, experimental pop-up show "Postcards from America" at Art Night Out: Rock & Roll on the American Road on Saturday and give a Spotlight lecture at the museum campus on Sunday.
As a Minnesota native, the South is just far enough away and unfamiliar to be somewhat foreign yet accessible.
"There are layers of history here that are different than the north, I feel that historical presence constantly," Soth says. "It's more present here for whatever reason and there's something exciting about that. My eyes are more open to it because it's not my culture."
He sticks mainly to shooting photos in North America these days because he can interpret the visual language -- the landscape, topography and cultural meaning -- more clearly than that other countries. But having the added elements of a strong accent that may be difficult to understand at first creates an informative depth to his images.
Within his portraiture, Soth presents images that lend to a certain story. Many of his subjects have an object or two in hand, their clothing and setting lend context and facial expressions help give way to the narrative.
"They don't tell a story, but they suggest a story," Soth says. The trick is to add enough elements for that balance to happen. "By allowing viewers to fill in some of those blanks, they create the story. You have to provide the right number of elements, but not too many."
In a portrait of a race car driver, he wouldn't necessarily be seated in the car. Soth's style instead would seat the man in his living room with a racing helmet nearby for a better sense of mystery.
Soth was inspired by Robert Frank and Stephen Shore, two American photographers whose work is also shown in "The Open Road." His earliest influences, however, were primarily literature, which is telling of his photography process that allows projects to take on a life of their own and drive the plot, so to speak.
"It's a lot more like writing poetry than like writing a novel," Soth says. "You start, follow your intuition and serendipity, then go in a different direction; revise and re-edit as you're going.
"There are some narrative qualities but photography isn't classic storytelling, with a beginning, middle and end. For me, it's more lyrical."
In "Sleeping by the Mississippi,"one of Soth's four major projects, he had in mind an exhibit originally called "From Here to There," in which he would begin with one photo and one picture would lead to the next. It began with a photo of the "world's smallest church" in Iowa, which led to a photo of a similarly claimed church in Iceland and others along the Mississippi River. Eventually the river became the metaphor for wandering and took over the show.
During his spotlight lecture, Soth will take a similar approach: kicking off with an overview of his photographic work, going down any number of unforeseen routes and landing with insights on his current project in Greenville, Miss.
"It's somewhat by chance; I know it sounds like it could be a disaster, but I've done it a number of times," Soth says. "It's thrilling and it works."
NAN What's Up on 04/22/2016