I have had Alec Soth in the “heavy hitters” category in my brain for a long time. I don’t think I’d ever seen his work in person before, and his exhibition at MMoCA did not disappoint. It’s amazing how different it can be seeing a photograph in person, a large, gorgeous print, no less, and after years of not thinking about it; the Holt Cemetery image is one I swore I had never seen before, but it turns out I had already included it on MH. I made a post about Soth several years ago when I was first starting to see his photography all over and really loving his environmental portraiture, but also his powerful, lonely, person-less images. I haven’t been able to get his pictures out of my mind since seeing them in Madison a couple weeks ago, so I wanted to revisit some of his series and share more images that I enjoyed here.

Soth might not be an artist you think of as fitting into a space about animal- and nature-themed photography, but I see nature playing a huge role in his work. I honestly think the subject sneaks into many artists’ projects, even without them knowing or intending it to. I have written before about how the presence of animals and nature is unavoidable, and seeing pictures by great photographers that have those qualities I’m particularly interested in is like finding gold nuggets. Plus–artists without MFAs hold a special place in my heart.

These are some of my favorites from the exhibition, and others I loved browsing Soth’s portfolio site the past few days.

Visit artist's site: alecsoth.com

Posted October 27th, 2014