This ten minute video by Alec Soth has been a model for the work I wish to produce. I watched it again today. I am grateful to Alec Soth for giving me a copy of the video for the purposes of my project. It has 36 images in it from his book Niagara. The effectiveness of the video is that he does not talk about the specific images. Instead he talks about the process of creating the work. He talks about his own experiences of love and what he is inspired by to make his work. What happens is I look at the images but his words are prompting other thoughts at the same adding a richness to the experience of the image. I quote some of his words from the video with the images.
All images are from Soth’s photobook Niagara (Soth, 2006)
‘I am travelling all alone, am alone all the time….very lonely…and then I am in a honeymoon suite thinking about love.’
‘I think of the work as more like a love song on the radio rather than a documentary.

‘…laying in bed daydreaming about what this project is going to be’
‘…the shape was a circle, think about colour and shape as the material I am working with….like a painter would be working with it hunting it out in the landscape’

‘I married my high school sweetheart…. half my life later I don’t have these exact same feelings…..that would be ridiculous, right?….and yet we endure it. You know I haven’t fallen in love in a way long time. I love my wife deeply…..but you are my heavens above…I haven’t written those words in a long time’

‘Falling in love is a great feeling.’

‘Passion dies.’
References
SOTH, A. 2006. Niagara. New York. STEIDL.
Categories: Contextual Research FMP, Final Major Project, Project Development FMP