Alec Soth: Paris / Minnesota
July 29 – October 2, 2021
Artist Statement
In 2007 I started work on a large scale fashion project. The idea was to produce an entire fashion magazine of my own pictures, including the ads. The art director wanted me to shoot in Paris. On my first day I was scheduled to photograph backstage at a Dior runway show.
I’d never been to a fashion show before and didn’t understand the backstage politics. Within an hour I was thrown out by security.
The more I worked in Paris, the more aware I was of my identity as a lifelong Minnesotan. Rather than being ashamed of this, I wanted
to make it part of the project. Fashion is simply the way we present ourselves to the world. For me, the fashion choices of someone in Duluth are as worthy of investigation as those of someone in Paris. I’d go further and say I feel this way about culture generally.
Like countless photographers, from Atget in Paris to Walker Evans in Alabama, I’m more interested in the vernacular than I am in the
de rigueur. With this exhibition at the Nemeth Art Center, I want to highlight this interest by exhibiting the photographs near where
many of them were made.
Work Images
Dynell, Bemidji, Minnesota, 2007, Archival pigment print, 40 x 32 inches (image), 48 x 40 inches (paper size)
Akeley Regional Community Center, 2007, Edition of 7, plus 3 artist’s proofs, Archival pigment print, 40 x 50 inches (image), 48 x 58 inches (paper size)
Members of the Lumberjacks, Bemidji High School’s Varsity Girls Basketball Team, 2007, Chromogenic process print, 8 x 10 inches (image), 16 x 20 inches (framed)
Marie, Park Rapids, Minnesota, 2007, Archival pigment print, 32 x 40 inches (image) 40 x 48 inches (paper size)
F.L., 2007, Archival pigment print, 30 x 24 inches (image), 36 x 30 inches (paper size)
Akeley, Minnesota, 2007, Archival pigment print, 40 x 50 inches (image), 48 x 58 inches (paper size)
Kristin, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2007, Archival pigment print, 50 x 40 inches (image), 58 x 48 inches (paper size)
Eelpout Festival, 2007, Archival pigment print 40 x 50 (image), 48 x 58 inches (paper size)
Ronald, 2007, Archival pigment print, 40 x 32 (image), 48 x 40 inches (paper size)
Stephen, 2007, Archival pigment print, 40 x 32 inches (image), 48 x 40 inches (paper size)
Installation Images
Reception Images
Alec Soth, Artist Bio
Alec Soth (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has published over twenty-five books including Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004), NIAGARA (2006), Broken Manual (2010), Songbook (2015) and I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating (2019). Soth has had over fifty solo exhibitions including survey shows organized by Jeu de Paume in Paris (2008), the Walker Art Center in Minnesota (2010) and Media Space in London (2015). Soth has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013). In 2008, Soth created Little Brown Mushroom, a multi-media enterprise focused on visual storytelling. Soth is represented by Sean Kelly in New York, Weinstein Hammons Gallery in Minneapolis, Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, Loock Galerie in Berlin, and is a member of Magnum Photos.
This activity is made possible by the generous support of our members, sponsors,
and Minnesota voters through grants from the Region 2 Arts Council, thanks
to legislative appropriation from the Arts and Culture Heritage Fund.