American photographer Alec Soth likes to shine a light on oblivion, and so far it’s worked well for him. In Sleeping by the Mississippi (2002), Soth was already interested in the lonely souls wandering the banks of that legendary river. Later, in Broken Manual (2010), he photographed hermits and runaways who had chosen to reject society. For his latest publication, Songbook (Mack), Soth is attempting to revive America’s lost sense of community at a time when new technologies and social networks have created a new form of isolation.
Songbook, which features a beautiful cover design, was conceived with Soth’s writer friend Brad Zeller during trips across America from New York to Silicon Valley. Since 2012, the two have attended dozens of meetings, dances, festivals and community gatherings in search of any kind of human interaction, pretending to be on assignment for a local paper called LBM Dispatch, which is in fact Soth and Zeller’s shared blog. The result is funny, somewhat bizarre and often sad. The people seem alone even in groups. We see young people dancing, showing off. Women hold hands to form a circle. Many people are seen posing together, but it’s only an illusion: those pictures are in the minority, giving voice to the portraits of lonely people, posing and walking towards what seems to be the end of something.
Entirely in black and white, these photographs are tinged with melancholy and a sense of anxiety, which Soth confesses to while holding out hope. “When we talk about contemporary culture and Facebook,” he says, “we get the impression that organizations like this no longer exist. In fact, they’re only dormant. It’s inspiring to know that, even if it isn’t exactly flourishing, this type of culture still exists.” Although Soth’s photographs give us an overview of the cultures and communities that exist in America today, the series is ultimately more about communicating an emotion.
Songbook is a lyrical representation of the tension between American individualism and the desire to be united. Because Soth has always been interested in the links between photography and text, the pages are dotted with enigmatic personal stories, quotations, slices of life. As an epilogue, he chose this profound observation from the playwright Eugene Ionesco: “The whole history of the world has been governed by nostalgias and anxieties, which political action does no more than reflect and interpret, very imperfectly… It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.”
BOOK
Songbook
Alec Soth
Mack Editions
144 pages
€50.00 £40.00 $60.00
ISBN 9781910164020
http://mackbooks.co.uk
EXHIBITIONS
• Songbook
Alec Soth
Until March 14th,
Chez Sean Kelly
475 10th Ave
New York, NY 10018
United States
http://www.skny.com
• Songbook
Alec Soth
Until April 4th, 2015
Chez Fraenkel Gallery
49 Geary St #450
San Francisco, CA 94108
United States
http://fraenkelgallery.com
• Songbook
Alec Soth
Until April 4th, 2015
Weinstein Gallery
908 West 46th Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55419
United States
http://fraenkelgallery.com
