Alec Soth

Alec Soth (born 1969) is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis. Soth makes "large-scale American projects" featuring the midwestern United States. His work tends to focus on the "off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America" according to The Guardian art critic Hannah Booth. His major publications are Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, Songbook, I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, and A Pound of Pictures.

He has received fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography, and in 2021 received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. His photographs are in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center. His work has been exhibited widely including as part of the 2004 Whitney Biennial and a major solo exhibition at Media Space in London in 2015.

Early life and education Soth was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

Soth made several more photographic books including Last Days of W, a book about a country "exhausted by George W. Bush's presidency". Using the pseudonym Lester B. Morrison, he created Broken Manual over four years (2006–2010) an underground instruction manual for those looking to escape their lives. Soth investigates the places in which people retreat to escape civilization, he photographs monks, survivalists, hermits and runaways. He concurrently produced the photo book From Here to There: Alec Soth's America, an overview of Soth's photography from the early 1990s to the present.

In 2010, Soth flew to the United Kingdom but despite not having applied for a work visa was allowed into the country on the understanding that if he was "caught taking photographs" he could be put in prison for two years. So he handed the camera to his young daughter who took pictures in Brighton.

Following a 2016 assignment on a laughter yoga workshop in India for The New York Times Magazine, Soth stopped working for a year. During an art residency in San Francisco in 2017, later returned to his practice when the choreographer Anna Halprin, who was 97 at the time, invited him to photograph her at her home. He has collaborated on numerous books with Brad Zellar, a Minnesota writer from the Twin Cities.

Art market In 2004, Soth became a nominee of the Magnum Photos agency and in 2008 became a full member. Early in his career, he was also taken up by Gagosian Gallery and is now represented by Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating. London: Mack, 2019. . Includes an interview with Soth by Hanya Yanagihara. A Pound of Pictures. London: Mack, 2022. . Gathered Leaves Annotated. London: Mack, 2022.

Publications with others Suburban World: The Norling Photos. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society; Borealis, 2008. . Brad Zellar, Irwin D. Norling, Soth. The Auckland Project. Santa Fe, NM: Radius, 2011. . Two volumes in a slipcase, the other is by John Gossage, Southern stars: a guide to the constellations visible in the southern hemisphere. Alec Soth's Lonely Boy Mag 2: Boys and Their Cars. St. Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2011. Text and photographs by Todd Hido, Soth, Chad States and erotic dioramas by Peter Davidson. Edition of 1000 copies. The 1968 Project: A Nation Coming of Age. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society, 2011. . Brad Zellar, Soth. Rodarte. JRP|Ringier, 2011. Photographs by Soth and Catherine Opie. House of Coates. Photographs by Alec Soth and Lester B. Morrison, text by Brad Zellar. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. . Coffee House, 2014. . Ohio. LBM Dispatch #1. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. . Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies. Upstate. LBM Dispatch #2. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies. Michigan. LBM Dispatch #3. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. . Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies. Three Valleys. LBM Dispatch #4. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2013. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies. Colorado. LBM Dispatch #5. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2013. Text by Brad Zellar Edition of 2000 copies. Texas. LBM Dispatch #6. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2013. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies. Georgia. LBM Dispatch #7. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2014. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies. Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot. Rome: Contrasto, 2013. . Transcripts compiled from conversations between Soth and Zanot, with new and previously published photographs by Soth. Zanot contributes an introduction, "Alec Soth: the Recycling of Photography". The Parameters of Our Cage. London: Mack, 2020. . Correspondence between Soth and Christopher Fausto Cabrera, an inmate in the Minnesota Correctional Facility.

Books edited or with contributions by Soth The Image To Come: How Cinema Inspires Photographers. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007. Georgian Spring: A Magnum Journal = ქართულიგაზაფხული მაგნუმი ს დღიურები. London: Chris Boot, New York: Magnum, 2009. . Introduction by Wendell Steavenson. Photographs by various Magnum photographers. Brighton Picture Hunt. Brighton: Photoworks, 2010. . Photographs by Carmen Soth, edited by Soth. Postcards From America. Photographs by Soth, Jim Goldberg, Susan Meiselas, Paolo Pellegrin, Mikhael Subotzky, and Ginger Strand. Magnum, 2012. A book, bumper stickers, a newspaper, two fold-outs, three cards, a poster and five zines, all in a box. Edition of 500 copies. About Face. San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2014. . With essays by Philip Gefter, Sandra S. Phillips, and Ulrike Schneider. Edition of 1000 copies. Exhibition catalog. The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip. Edited and with text by David Campany. Photographs by various. New York: Aperture, 2014. . Road Trips: Voyages photographiques à travers l'Amérique. Paris: Textuel, 2014. . French-language version. En la Carretera: Viajes fotográficos a través de Norteamérica. Madrid: La Fábrica, 2014. . Spanish-language version. Rochester 585/716: A Postcard from America Project. New York: Aperture; San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2015. . Edition of 1000 copies. Photographs by various Magnum photographers. ABC Photography. Berlin: Tarzipan, 2017. Photographs by various. Text by Monte Packham. Home. Tokyo: Magnum Photos Tokyo, 2018. .

Solo exhibitions 2006: Alec Soth 'Niagara', Gagosian Gallery, New York City 2009/10: Niagara, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA 2010/11: Alec Soth: Black line of woods, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA 2010: Mississippi Niagara, Triennale di Milano, Milan 2010/11: Alec Soth: From here to there, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 2012: Alec Soth: La Belle Dame sans Merci, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Central Exhibition Hall Moscow Manege, Moscow 2015/16: Gathered Leaves, Media Space, Science Museum, London, 2015/16; The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, 2016/17, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, Japan, 2022 2020: Alec Soth: Photography is a Language, Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna

Collections Soth's work is held in the following public collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL: 3 prints Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL: 6 prints (as of June 2018) Museum of Modern Art, New York: 1 print (as of June 2018) Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA: 12 prints (as of June 2018) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA: 14 prints (as of June 2018) Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN: 55 holdings (prints and books, as of June 2018) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: 4 prints (as of June 2018)

Awards 1999: McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN. 2001: Travel and Study Grant, Jerome Foundation, for Sleeping by the Mississippi. 2001: Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) / Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists. 2003: Santa Fe Prize for Photography. 2004: McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN. 2006: Finalist, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. A £3000 prize. 2008: Bush Fellowship, Bush Foundation, Saint Paul, MN. A $50000 grant. 2011: Infinity Award from International Center of Photography, Publication category, for From Here to There: Alec Soth's America. 2013: John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2013: McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN. 2014: Knight Arts Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation An award of $35000 to create The Winnebago Workshop. 2021: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bristol