Alec Soth Lecture

Its always great getting to hear photographers (and artists) lecture, to put a face to the art work you've been admiring. Yesterday I saw photographer Alec Soth (rhymes with both) speak over at UPenn (and I got to ride the L, which is always an adventure, especially around rush hour!) Alec's talk was kind of a downer, in a good way. He spoke about his frustrations with photography, the over saturation of photography, with sites like Flickr, and Facebook, pictures are everywhere. It was great to hear a photographer I admired admit to inner turmoil over his work, it made him relatable, not this unreachable lofty figure. His solution to this problem, was to try and connect his images with a narrative, attempting to follow the Aristolian Arc.

(Actually used this image in his presentation, yay google for helping me find it)

It does raise a valid question, what separates our "art" from these unconnected "snapshots"?

I want to say that a well thought idea is what separates the two, but some great photographs are spur of the moment, taken as Cartier-Bresson would put it, the decisive moment. I've been finding myself struggling with the same issue. Why should my photograph be important, does it have meaning, or a back story? As a result I find myself dissatisfied with most of the photographs I've taken because something was as Alec put it "pretty".

I'm not sure where I'll end up along this path, I love photographing things with backstory, meaning (although my ideas are usually dark and brooding as of late) So I was glad to be cheered up by doing polaroid transfers. And that is what I leave you with.