A Lecture

I am part of the Fishbone photographic arts group, a monthly gathering held at the Fishbone Gallery in Longford, Coventry. It's a very diverse bunch of artistically minded photographers. Each month we set a theme, to explore individually, then bring back images the following month for a group critique. This worked very well, demonstrating a wide variety of photographic styles, creating a lot of discussion, and in the summer we held a solid and successful group exhibition 'f11'.

However, the themes were decided by picking people's ideas out of a hat (usually just a word - silence, twilight etc.)  and where this process was initially responded to quite enthusiastically, it has recently started to feel quite dry, and a bit naff. So, desperate for some inspiration with more depth/content I suggested we look to the work of contemporary photographers, and find a particular body of work, of suitable intrigue, to encourage some fresh ideas. I opted to do the research for the first one, and also suggested that I could deliver it as a short lecture to get the discussion going.

I went for Alec Soth's recent publication with Magnum - 'Fashion Magazine: Paris, Minnesota'. I came across this by chance whilst looking for christmas presents in Waterstones, and was surprised by its originality. It is technically an annual fashion magazine, and hence a collaborative piece requiring product advertising. But the photographer (Soth) is in control of every element, and with a 'free leash'. Consequentially, it presents itself as his personal body of work.

The title of the magazine refers to the comparing and contrasting of the high couture Parisian fashion world, with the 'fashionably' dressed of his home town of Minneapolis. Soth explains how this concept came about, in his interview with Marta Gili.

"As someone utterly removed from the world of Paris couture, how was I supposed to find my own voice? The more I thought about it, this sense of removal, this contrast between my world and Paris — this became the scaffolding to build the magazine."

"My favorite example of this involved Chanel. In Paris, I photographed Karl Lagerfeld at the Grand Palais. In Minnesota, I photographed a girl with a Chanel shopping bag in front of Sally's Beauty Shop. With this magazine, I'm trying to explore the distance between those two places."

Many of the pictures were very unexpected considering the context of their presentation. In Paris it's almost an ironic documentation, of the intensity and seriousness of that fashion culture. And in the more formalised/stylised portraits it seems to me as if the camera is very discerning of those models (of those people), rather than directing them. Then in Minnesota we are faced by awkward teenagers, staring candidly into camera. The photos here are almost intimate, the subjects vulnerable, but Soth does not appear critical, just observant. What surprised me further was glancing to the bottom of the page to read -  "POLO BY RALPH LAUREN wool suit and cotton shirt. DIOR HOMME shoes." All of a sudden these sensitive portraits bring you right back to - 'FashionMagazine'. Very good Mr Soth. Talk about pushing the boundaries, I'd say that he was more rearranging them.

So feeling that there was a lot of worth, a lot of discussion, and a lot of potential inspiration, I chose this magazine to present to the group. Believing that it could demonstrate the potential for a photographer to look at a recognised genre/style and then tackle it with a very unique personalised approach, as Soth has done.

I'm due to deliver this 'lecture' next week (of which you've essentially just had a sample of). I'll update with how it goes.