Photo of the week: Welcome to Utopia ... Texas

I love the style of this photo. We can see usual real life without decoration.

Comment posted by morris on July 19, 2007

I think the choices for POW have been very interesting so far. In many respects it's quite a leap from last week's picture to this one, but it just goes to show the rich diversity of different styles and approaches within Magnum and possibly also how photography has developed over the years.

I hadn't known this picture by Alec Soth, whose work I admire. With reference to John Szarkowski's "Mirrors and Windows" theory, one aspect which makes me like Alec Soth's pictures is that I feel he's looking through a window. But at the same time, what he finds on the other side of that window is a mirror. This is also something I like about this picture, meaning it was taken on assignment (I assume) yet still the personal vision of the photographer is clearly visible.

Comment posted by Arthur Fleischmann on July 19, 2007

Wow, this is a Alec Soth photo that I did not know so far. The concept of Utopia mirrored in an image that shows everyday life. simple and straightforward.
I would like to know if this is a personal project Mr. Soth is working on or if this was part of an assignment. I guess it was an assignment due to the fact that it is a 6x6 photograph. Am i right? Would be great if Mr. Soth could enlighten me about the background to Utopia.

And on a sidenote: I am glad to see this blog was revitalized in this way. A mixture of in-depth articles such as the one from Inge Bondi and simple, yet pleasurous posts like this one.

Comment posted by Lea Kast on July 19, 2007

You know, the "copyright" text on the "large" versions of the photos on the Magnum website are truly irritating.

Comment posted by JM Colberg on July 19, 2007

I was just sent a copy of GEO that featured the work of Magnum. The magazine has one photograph from each photographer. They have Werner Bischof’s flute player, Alex Webb’s border arrest picture, Kudelka’s black dog, Jonas Bendiksen’s butterfly and satellite picture…all of the classics. Then, for me, they chose this picture. Weird.

I’m not saying I dislike the picture. I think it is just fine. But it is far from being a signature image. I made it while on assignment for Entertainment Weekly (read the story here). I took the assignment for a few reasons. (1) I liked the idea of this small town, Utopia, that didn’t have any form of communal entertainment. (2) I’d wanted to drive to Texas to work on another project (a commission by the Cinemateque Francaise). (3) I thought there was a good chance I’d have the opportunity to make a decent picture for my ongoing series of portraits.

I was really struck by the girl on the bed. She reminded me so much of one of my high school girlfriends. So I made a portrait of her. It isn’t quite perfect:

The thing that is so hard about editorial photography is that the picture is going to be published no matter what you think. There is an interesting conversation about this going on here.

Comment posted by Alec Soth on July 19, 2007

Reminds me of Jeff Wall.

Comment posted by Ron Diorio on July 19, 2007

Thanks for your reply Alec. Now I am curious to why GEO decided to represent you with this one photograph... Will see if I can find out. :-)

Comment posted by Martin Fuchs on July 19, 2007

Really interesting editorial project from Alec, and great to see his response to the questions people were posing. I look at this series of photos of Utopia, and to me, they're still very much Alec Soth photographs. Arthur Fleischmann said this in an earlier comment: ". . . it was taken on assignment (I assume) yet still the personal vision of the photographer is clearly visible." Exactly. In this case, I can absolutely see why Entertainment Weekly chose Alec for this story, and it makes sense to me also why Alec said yes. This, to me, is a good example of a fine art photographer bringing something unique to an editorial project.

Comment posted by Liz Kuball on July 19, 2007

Thanks Alec for the interesting additional information. I'd like to say, even if this particular photograph is no signature image, I was glad to find it here on the blog and hope in the future there will be more such lesser known pictures posted as POW.

Comment posted by Arthur Fleischmann on July 19, 2007

Its nice to see some more of your work Alec, it is great material, reality prevalent.

Comment posted by w robert angell on July 19, 2007

Hello and first of all many thanks to Alec Soth for the great image!
Due to Martin Fuchs who takes very much care of this blog I got to know Alec's comments to this picture. It is one of the 60 images we selected for German GEO's cover story of july 2007.
The picture had to be from 2006 because we could show one picture per year and per photographer only. We had to take care of not repeating the same countries and topics and at the same time the pictures had to reflect in a way the development of the world during 60 years. The American kids represented to us perfectly the new way of communication of the world's youth and I am sure it will be a signature image soonest!
Elisabeth Trautnitz, GEO magazine, picture editor

Comment posted by Elisabeth Trautnitz on July 20, 2007

I was wondering what happened to the subtle tones and colours of the closer up portrait of the girl, that Alec linked to. The reproduction of the image on this page looks completely different! Is that just a slipup? Where in the process did that happen?

Comment posted by Olle on July 20, 2007

I keep going to the stags watchfull gaze...

Comment posted by w robert angell on July 20, 2007

Thank you Alec for your reply and thank you very much Mrs. Trautnitz for taking the time to explain your selection process. Great to see that great photoeditors read this blog as well.

Comment posted by Lea Kast on July 22, 2007