Alec Soth's B&W Songbook Blast To The Past

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.

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.

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)...

The Coliseum Revisted

Andrew Burton/Getty Images (via)

I wonder if this photo will someday end up in Mark Kologi's found photo garage? Some yungun will pick it up and wonder what outdoor show or fireworks display from decades past these relaxed vacationers were preparing to watch. They'll remember how much fun they had in their own youth celebrating with their families or neighborhood friends before the responsibilities of adulthood finally hit home. They'll bask in the temporary glow provided by warm childhood memories...

And then some grizzled old timer like myself will walk up and sadly inform him or her that those are not vacationers, those are not fireworks, and that those nice people came to view and cheer on the death and dismemberment of children and families, came to celebrate the hatred and carnage that one group of people can bestow upon another.

Republicans' Romance With Slavery

There's never been any doubt in my mind that if many of your more "Conservative" Republicans (and granted, that caveat may be a tad redundant) had their way, they would magically snap their fingers and transform this country back into some more slightly "modern" version of feudalism slavery. And now some are actually starting to give voice to their repressed, age old romance with that particularly peculiar institution of yore.

If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?  -State Rep. Loy Mauch (R-Bismarck)

See... The Bible says so- and the Constitution! Just the natural order of things...now tell me ol' Loy wouldn't cut one helluva handsome figure with a Confederate officer's hat firmly atop his fair skinned head.

"As Dogs Marking Their Territory"

   Photo: S. Banos

Photography is easier, more popular and as ubiquitous as the weather; long gone is the romantic, analog notion of photographs being treasured, historical artifacts. And at least since the seventies, there have been those who have called for the time when all of us are as visually versed and educated in the medium of photography, as in any other. The question, of course, is that now that we find ourselves in this global, nonstop digital shootout, are we any more literate in this particular medium- or are we no different than the minions of functionally illiterate students that inhabit our nation's middle schools?

This article is surprisingly rife with some (possibly?) insightful facts, quips and observations concerning our current and curious state of photography...

Prof. Cooper even cynically suggests that people brandish smart phones habitually now because no one smokes any more and they aren’t sure want to do with their hands. 

One photographer's unique contribution to slow things down...

Deja Vu All Over Again...