The Guernsey Photography Festival in collaboration with the Guernsey Museums present the opening of a major exhibition by American photographer Alec Soth.
‘Looking for Love’ is a collection of Soth’s early work and will be presented at the Brian White Gallery (Candie Gardens) from the 27th of May to the 4th of July 2021.
This event will serve as a build up for The Guernsey Photography Festival special 10th (+1) anniversary celebration that will take place from 23rd of September to 23rd of October 2021 on the theme of “ACTS OF LOVE & REBELLION”.
Alec Soth is widely regarded as one of the most important living, contemporary photographers. He is known for his large-scale projects that focus on the American mid-west and the more off-beat and melancholic aspects of life there. His work is held in private and public collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center. He has published a number of books, first editions of which are highly collectible.
“We are incredibly fortunate to have an artist of such stature exhibiting in Guernsey,” said Jean-Christophe Godet, Artistic Director of the Guernsey Photography Festival. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for the community to experience photographic work of the highest calibre from one of the world’s most influential living photographers. I’d like to thank The Guernsey Museum for partnering with us to secure this exhibition and our sponsors Raven Property Group and institutional partners, Guernsey Arts Commission for their continued and highly valued support of the Festival.”
Helen Glencross Director at the Guernsey Museums said: “we are absolutely delighted to be able to work with the Guernsey Photography Festival again this year to create this unique exhibition of images by leading contemporary photographer Alec Soth. Due to lockdown, our schedule has been disrupted but the opportunity to host exhibition was not to be missed.”
Looking for Love
“If you dropped off a roll of black -and-white film at a drugstore in the upper Midwest in 1996, there is a good chance it was printed by me. I spent that year (I was 26) and several others working at a large commercial photography lab. Most of my days were spent in the dark, printing pictures of seemingly happy Midwestern families. I was, of course, miserable.
After a day in the dark, I would head to the bar. More darkness, yes, but I was comforted by that boozy, underwater world and the solitude I found among strangers. In time, I started making pictures. Back at work, I would spend more and more of my day printing my own photographs. (I would tape the finished prints around my legs and sneak them out of the darkroom under my jeans in a slow robot-walk to my car.)
As these pictures accumulated, I started straying from the bar into the city itself. I even began skulking around in the sunshine. Still, the heart of this work was back in the darkroom. Alone for hours on end in the darkness, I would daydream about the adventures to come. One day, I imagined, a stranger would fall in love with me.”
