photography
has so much to do with solitude
and also with escapism these people and
places
on the fringe are attractive to me
my name is alex soth i'm based in
minnesota
i made my name as a photographer 18
years ago
with a project called sleeping by the
mississippi
it's the mississippi river spawns almost
the full length of the united states
from north to south
and it's always been this used
metaphorically
for the idea of freedom near the
beginning of the river
i cross it every day the guy holding the
airplane
which is probably my best known picture
i was just driving
along the river this glass room caught
my attention
in that room there were some model
airplanes that he had
and his daughter had built so we were
just off to the side of that room
on the roof and that's where i made that
picture of him
that picture of the mother and daughter
their jobs were
prostitutes a lot of times when i
photographed i would ask people
what their dream was and the younger
woman
said her dream was to be a nurse someday
joshua is one of the hundreds or
thousands of incarcerated men
on these bleachers my conversation with
him was quite short
in part he had this tear-drop tattoo
which means he's murdered someone
i am someone who never lived on the edge
of society i always had a job
sort of responsible and conventional
but i attracted to these people that
live in different ways
what's sleeping by the mississippi is
about dreaming
another way to live
niagara falls exists on the border of
canada and united states
it's often thought of in association
with
marriage and honeymoons and suicidal
people go to this place
and i was more interested in this
metaphor of love
i was frustrated that in photographing
this theme of love
you know you can't see love and i had
the idea of love
letters and they become an important
part of the narrative
in the book
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i knew that i was that my work was in
fashion but i knew it would go out of
fashion
i show in galleries but i also do work
in magazines
i do a little bit of teaching i have
other ways of
surviving and then i applied to magnum
my very first it was a magnum assignment
was in china
in like 2005
i went again in 2008 and have been
several times since and seeing the
change i kind of live in my own little
bubble
the last time i did this book signing in
shanghai
and it was like so much energy it feels
like a very exciting time
so i started just having these portrait
sessions
in people's homes wherever i traveled
i was very nervous approaching people
because i've done it too many times
i'm not shy in the same way
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i know how fiercely your heart is
beating i just wanted was an
intimate experience i made portraits in
poland and in ukraine
london new orleans
i tend to shoot in the natural light
which
with using my big camera is very
challenging
absolutely hugely i mean i'm a person
need to travel to make work but i had to
stop
plus i have two children and dealing
with their lives and their education and
all of that
many young photographers that spend more
energy
trying to promote themselves even if
there are a billion
photographer but matter is taking the
time
to find your own little way of seeing
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things