Alec Soth
Michele and James
Michele and James, 2004
C-Print, 101.6 x 81.3 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
2009-015-004
© Alec Soth
b. 1969 (Minneapolis, US), lives and works in Minneapolis, US
While the photographer sets up and adjusts his bulky 8×10 plate camera, his subjects noticeably relax, releasing any contrived poses. Alec Soth’s portraits are a blend of dream and reality, intimacy and otherness. Driven by wanderlust, he traverses the American landscape like a hunter and gatherer, through his native Minnesota (Sleeping by the Mississippi) over to the Canadian border, where newlyweds enjoy their honeymoon at the brink of Niagara Falls (Niagara). Soth follows the imaginary tracks of other photographers of America, in search of national myths, collective memories, and dispatches from the future.