Real Time, Storytime, Pandemic Time
While in normal times his talks may have been reserved for a small class at some prestigious institution, in pandemic times we are fortunate to have them easily accessible to all. Alec Soth has started a YouTube channel!
At the very surface level - the form-follows-function aesthetic of his videos is brilliant. No flashy editing here, just two cameras that are running throughout - one focused on him speaking, and the other down on the table as he flips through the photo books. He adjusts the table camera throughout, physically zooming in or out depending on the size of the photo in question, tweaking exposure to make sure we see the detail he is talking about. It is a perfect example of simple-does-not-mean-easy - the light is perfectly even but doesn’t attract any attention to itself, and the table seems to be covered with some sort of deep black velvet that doesn’t reflect any light and showcases the photo books perfectly. So many lessons from an accomplished visual storyteller even before the lecture has begun. The sound quality is pristine with a plainly visible microphone up close - one commenter calling his videos ASMR for photographers. The typewritten title cards are the icing on the cake.
Despite all the photos I’ve taken, I cannot claim to have even the slightest understanding of art photography. And so it was with fascination that I watched his video on Eggleston’s book The Democratic Forest. I’d probably do okay on the mid-term now, but in terms of understanding what Soth really means when he talks about concepts like “difficult photographs”, I’m still way out of my depth. Maybe I just haven’t pondered the right questions for long enough. I still cannot help but feel that these photo books are just self-indulgence by the photographer at the deepest level - beautifully printed, exquisitely bound artifacts filled with hundreds of seemingly random (or ahem, “democratic”) pictures. And to know that Eggleston did not do the editing himself only reaffirms this feeling. Once the picture was taken, did he even care? Or am I looking at this all wrong? Maybe I’m jumping into the masterclass without having taken any of the prerequisites.
Soth’s next video - Real Time vs. Storytime - deals with sequencing, editing, and the concept of time. A bit more accessible. I shared my first pandemic roll in Fresh Developments, here is roll #2 edited with this video in mind. Of course, if you do have the 44 minutes to watch the video beforehand, some of this may make more sense.