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| Photo: Alec Soth |
Most deja vu's seem unconsciously initiated, even though they are usually triggered by the most nuanced of external stimuli: a familiar scent or accent, a string of musical notes or peripheral sighting... Such was not the case upon seeing Alec Soth's prints from his latest book and endeavor named Songbook. It was as if I fell asleep in a Soho (NYC) photo gallery in the latter seventies, only to reawaken from my coma at The Fraenkel Gallery on the left coast in late winter 2015. The style, sensibility and content were definitely the most familiar of continuities, as if the color (let alone digital) revolution had never, ever taken place. Even some of the clothing styles in the photos (taken between 2012 and 2014) are eerily reminiscent of the seventies! The one thing that assured me that I had not entered some bizarre temporal rift were the post eighties, wall sized prints.
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| Photo: Alec Soth |
Of course, Mr. Soth, who was born in '69, is a tad young to have experienced the gallery scene back in the day, though I'm sure he's familiar with the work produced then. I had seen, and was quite impressed, by some of his earlier B&W work, and his latest stuff most definitely does not disappoint. It has a primeval vitality that is absent in his color work (good as that is)- isn't it supposed to be the other way around? I find much of his color work more... contemplative. But his B&W stuff jumps! All sorts of things seem to be going on behind the scenes that we're not quite privy too: humor, confusion, spontaneity- life! In one shot a house seems about to be engulfed and devoured by massive, eerily advancing vegetation; in another, the most beautiful (and threatening) of billowing cloud banks is about to swallow an unsuspecting motel whole. There's a reason these photos celebrate the small time scenarios of daily life- everyday life is not always to be trusted.
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| Photo: Alec Soth |
Addendum: With Mr. Soth being who he is in the great pantheon of all things current- could this, maybe, possibly be the unwitting harbinger of the ages that finally catapults The Great B&W Revival that never was and was always meant to be? Will a great legion of imitators and innovators alike finally rally to the hallowed silver halide round table of monochromatic imagery? Maybe, possibly (not)...
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