In an age of increasing social media–driven isolation, what does community look like in America?
That’s the question photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar set out to answer when they started roaming the country in 2012. Over the next two years, the pair traveled together for weeks at a time, showing up at dances, festivals, and other intimate gatherings to look for signs of social life. In Soth’s exhibition and book, Songbook, which was published by Mack in December, he shows what they discovered—a mix of nostalgia and strangeness that feels distinctly American. [...]
The pair began their journey near Minneapolis, where Soth lives, and traveled all across the country, from upstate New York to Silicon Valley to Colorado. Inspired by the approach of Sherwood Anderson’s protagonist in the classic short story cycle Winesburg, Ohio, everywhere they went, they introduced themselves as reporters from a made-up local newspaper called the LBM Dispatch, which, eventually, they ended up publishing for seven issues. While the Dispatch has the look of an actual newspaper, Soth’s distinct photography collection, Songbook, strips away that documentary material for a more lyrical approach.
No comments:
Post a Comment