Who is Alec Soth? | Alec Soth Biography and Wiki

Alec Soth is an American author and photographer. He is famously known for his “large-scale American projects” featuring the midwestern United States. His work tends to focus on the “off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America” according to The Guardian art critic Hannah Booth.

He is a member of Magnum Photos, an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London, and Tokyo. New York Times art critic Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he has made a “photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers” and photographs “loners and dreamers”.

Alec Soth Age and Birthday

Soth was born on December 30, 1969, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America. He celebrates his birthday on December 30th every year. Soth will be 51 years old on Dec. 30th, 2020.

Alec Soth Height and Weight

Soth appears to be quite tall in stature of his photos, relative to his surroundings, are anything to go by. However, details regarding his actual height and other body measurements are currently not publicly available. We are keeping tabs and will update this information once it is out.

Alec Soth Education

Soth studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

Alec Soth Parents

After doing our research, details about his parents are not known to the public and it is also not known if he has any siblings.

Alec Soth Wife

Soth wife’s name is Rachel Cartee Soth. They have lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota with their children.

Alec Soth Measurements and Facts

Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Alec Soth.

Full Name: Alec Soth
Age: 50 years (2019)
Date of Birth: December 30, 1969
Place of Birth: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America
Education‎: Sarah Lawrence College
Birthday: December 30th
Nationality: American
Father’s Name: Mr. Soth
Spouse: Rachel Cartee Soth
Children: Not mentioned
Profession: Author and photographer
Known For: His “large-scale American projects”
Net worth: est $100K-1M

Alec Soth Career

Alec Soth Books | Alec Soth Photography | Alec Soth Sleeping By The Mississippi

Soth has had various books of his work published by major publishers as well as independently published through his own Little Brown Mushroom. His major publications are Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, Songbook, and I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating.

He has received fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and was the beneficiary of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography.

His photographs are in major open and private assortments, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center.

His work has been shown generally including as part of the 2004 Whitney Biennial and a major independent display at Media Space in London in 2015.

Soth was conceived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He contemplated at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. He was accounted for to be “painfully shy” in his childhood.

Soth loved the work of Diane Arbus. He traveled around the Mississippi River and made a self-printed book entitled Sleeping by the Mississippi which included the two landscapes and portraits.

Curators for the 2004 Whitney Biennial put him in their show, and one of his photographs entitled “Charles”, of a man in a flight suit on his rooftop holding two model airplanes, was utilized in their poster.

At the point when he photographs individuals, Soth feels anxious at times. He said: “My own awkwardness solaces individuals, I think. It’s part of the exchange.” When he was on the road, he’d have notes portraying sorts of pictures he wanted to be taped to the directing wheel of his car.

One list was: “beards, birdwatchers, mushroom trackers, men’s retreats, after the rain, figures from behind, suitcases, tall individuals (especially thin), targets, tents, treehouses, and tree lines. With individuals, he’ll ask their permission to photograph them, and regularly wait for them to get comfortable; he sometimes utilizes an 8×10 camera.

He attempts to locate a “narrative arc and true storytelling” and pictures in which each image will lead to the following one. His first book, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published in 2004. His second book, Niagara, was published in 2006.

One of his photographs is of a woman in a bridal outfit sitting outside what appears to be an inn; he depicts having made an arrangement with a particular wedding chapel in Niagara Falls which let him take pictures of couples getting married, by photographing them after their weddings.

Soth made several progressively photographic books including Last Days of W, a book about a nation “exhausted by George W. Shrubbery’s administration”. He has photographed for The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, and Newsweek.

Soth, along with author Lester B. Morrison, created Broken Manual for more than four years (2006–2010) an underground guidance manual for those hoping to escape their lives. Soth investigates the places wherein individuals retreat to escape civilization, he photographs monks, survivalists, hermits, and runaways.

He simultaneously created the photograph book From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America a review of Soth’s photography from the early 1990s to the present.

Soth established the publishing house, Little Brown Mushroom (LBM), in 2010. Through it, he publishes his own, and that of other similarly invested individuals, “narrative photography books that work in a similar way to kids’ books,” in book, magazine, and newspaper formats.

He has collaborated on numerous books with Brad Zellar, a Minnesota essayist from the Twin Cities. In 2010, Soth traveled to the United Kingdom but in spite of not having applied for work, the visa was allowed into the nation on the understanding that in the event that he was “caught taking photographs” he could be placed in prison for two years.

So he handed the camera to his young daughter who took pictures in Brighton. A 2016 photograph presentation, titled Hypnagogia, featured 30 images from Soth’s 20-year exploration of the state among wakefulness and rest.

“Depicted as a neurological phenomenon, one repetitively associated with creativity, a hypnagogic state is a dreamlike experience while awake that conjures vivid, sometimes realistic imagery,” Soth explained in the artist statement for the undertaking.

In 2004, he became a chosen one of the Magnum Photos agency and in 2008 became a full part. His work has been compared to that of Walker Evans and Stephen Shore.

Alec Soth Publications

Publications by Soth | Alec Soth Sleeping By The Mississippi Book

Sleeping by the Mississippi. With essays by Patricia Hampl and Anne Wilkes Tucker and “Selected Notes to the Photographs”.
- Göttingen: Steidl, 2004. ISBN 9783865210074.
- Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86521-753-0.
- Expanded edition with 2 additional photographs. London: Mack. ISBN 978-1-910614-89-1.
Niagara. Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. ISBN 978-3865212337. Photographs by Alec Soth, essays by Richard Ford, “1962”, and Philip Brookman, “Over the Rainbow: Alec Soth’s Niagara”.
- London: Mack, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912339-259.
Fashion Magazine. Paris: Magnum, 2007. ISBN 978-2-9524102-1-2.
Dog Days Bogota. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007. ISBN 978-3-865214-51-5.
Last Days of W. St. Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2008.
Sheep. TBW Subscription Series #2. Oakland, CA: TBW, 2009. Edition of 800 copies. The other volumes are by Todd Hido, Abner Nolan, and Marianne Mueller.
Broken Manual. Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. ISBN 978-3-869301-99-0. With Lester B. Morrison.
From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2010. ISBN 978-0-935640-96-0. Catalog of a retrospective exhibition curated by Siri Engberg. Foreword by Olga Viso; texts by Geoff Dyer, “Riverrun”; Britt Salvesen, “American History”; Barry Schwabsky, “A Wandering Art”; a poem by August Kleinzahler, “Sleeping it off in Rapid City”; and Soth in conversation with Bartholomew Ryan, “Dismantling My Career”. Includes separate book The Loneliest Man in Missouri by Soth, inserted into the back cover.
Ash Wednesday, New Orleans. Kamakura, Japan: Super Labo, 2010.
One Mississippi. Nazraeli Press, 2010.
Lonely Boy Mag. No. A-1: Alec Soth’s Midwestern Exotica. St. Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2011. Edition of 1000 copies. Photographs and text by Soth.
One Day: 10 Photographers. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2011. ISBN 978-3-86828-173-6. A boxed set of ten books of photographs taken on 21 June 2010. Edited by Harvey Benge. The other books are by Jessica Backhaus, Gerry Badger, Benge, John Gossage, Todd Hido, Rob Hornstra, Rinko Kawauchi, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, and Martin Parr.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Edizioni Punctum, 2011. Edition of 500 copies.
- Italian-language edition. Text in Italian. 175 copies of the 500 total edition.
Looking for Love. Berlin: Kominek Bücher, 2012.
Ohio. LBM Dispatch #1. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. ASIN B008ESQB4Y. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies.
Upstate. LBM Dispatch #2. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies.
Michigan. LBM Dispatch #3. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. ASIN B00BT1KY14. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies.
Three Valleys. LBM Dispatch #4. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2013. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies.
Colorado. LBM Dispatch #5. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2013. Text by Brad Zellar Edition of 2000 copies.
Texas. LBM Dispatch #6. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2013. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies.
Georgia. LBM Dispatch #7. Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2014. Text by Brad Zellar. Edition of 2000 copies.
Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot. Rome: Contrasto, 2013. ISBN 978-8869654091. Transcripts compiled from conversations between Soth and Zanot, with new and previously published photographs by Soth. Zanot contributes an introduction, “Alec Soth: the Recycling of Photography”.
Bogota Funsaver. One Picture Book 88. Portland, OR: Nazraeli Press, 2014. ISBN 9781590054178. Edition of 500 copies.
Songbook. Göttingen. London: Mack, 2015. ISBN 978-1910164020.
Gathered Leaves. London: Mack, 2015. ISBN 9781910164365. 29 large format postcards and mini facsimile versions of Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, and Songbook. With an introduction by Kate Bush and an essay by Aaron Schuman.
I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating. London: Mack, 2019. ISBN 978-1-912339-31-0. Includes an interview with Soth by Hanya Yanagihara.

Publications with others

Suburban World: The Norling Photos. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society; Borealis, 2008. ISBN 9780873516099. Brad Zellar, Irwin D. Norling, Soth.
The Auckland Project. Santa Fe, NM: Radius, 2011. ISBN 978-1-934435-26-7. Two volumes in a slipcase, the other is by John Gossage, Southern stars: a guide to the constellations visible in the southern hemisphere.
Alec Soth’s Lonely Boy Mag 2: Boys and Their Cars. St. Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2011. Text and photographs by Todd Hido, Soth, Chad States, and erotic dioramas by Peter Davidson. Edition of 1000 copies.
The 1968 Project: A Nation Coming of Age. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011. ISBN 9780873518420. Brad Zellar, Soth.
Rodarte. JRP|Ringier, 2011. Photographs by Soth and Catherine Opie.
House of Coates. Photographs by Alec Soth and Lester B. Morrison, text by Brad Zellar.
- Saint Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2012. ISBN 9781199591036.
- Coffee House, 2014. ISBN 978-1566893701.

Publications edited or with contributions by Soth

The Image To Come: How Cinema Inspires Photographers. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007.
Georgian Spring: A Magnum Journal = ქართულიგაზაფხული მაგნუმი ს დღიურები. London: Chris Boot, New York: Magnum, 2009. ISBN 978-1905712151. Introduction by Wendell Steavenson. Photographs by various Magnum photographers.
Brighton Picture Hunt. Brighton: Photoworks, 2010. ISBN 978-1903796429. Photographs by Carmen Soth, edited by Soth.
Postcards From America. Photographs by Soth, Jim Goldberg, Susan Meiselas, Paolo Pellegrin, Mikhael Subotzky, and Ginger Strand. Magnum, 2012. A book, bumper stickers, a newspaper, two fold-outs, three cards, a poster and five zines, all in a box. Edition of 500 copies.
About Face. San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2014. ISBN 978-0-9839917-2-4. With essays by Philip Gefter, Sandra S. Phillips, and Ulrike Schneider. Edition of 1000 copies. Exhibition catalog.
The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip. Edited and with text by David Campany. Photographs by various.
- New York: Aperture, 2014. ISBN 978-1-59711-240-6.
- Road Trips: Voyages photographiques à travers l’Amérique. Paris: Textuel, 2014. ISBN 9782845975002. French-language version.
- En la Carretera: Viajes fotográficos a través de Norteamérica. Madrid: La Fábrica, 2014. ISBN 9788415691822. Spanish-language version.
Rochester 585/716: A Postcard from America Project. New York: Aperture; San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2015. ISBN 978-1-59711-340-3. Edition of 1000 copies.^[8]^[9] Photographs by various Magnum photographers.
ABC Photography. Berlin: Tarzipan, 2017. Photographs by various. Text by Monte Packham.
Home. Tokyo: Magnum Photos Tokyo, 2018. ISBN 978-4-9909806-0-3.

Solo exhibitions

2004: Alec Soth ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY.
2004: Alec Soth ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2005: Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY.
2006: Alec Soth ‘Niagara’, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY.
2006: Alec Soth – Niagara, Wohnmaschine, Berlin.
2006: Alec Soth: Niagara, Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN.
2009: The Last Days of W., Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY.
2009/2010: Niagara, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.
2010/2011: Alec Soth: Blackline of woods, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.
2010: Mississippi Niagara, Triennale di Milano, Milan.
2010/2011: Alec Soth: From here to there, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
2011: Alec Soth: Broken Moments, Galerie Friedrich Loock, Berlin.
2012: Alec Soth: La Belle Dame sans Merci, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Central Exhibition Hall Moscow Manege, Moscow.
2012: Broken Manual, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY.
2015/2016: Gathered Leaves, Media Space, Science Museum, London, 2015/2016; The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, 2016/2017.
2019 I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Collections

Soth’s work is held in the following public collections:

Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL: 6 prints (as of June 2018)
Museum of Modern Art, New York: 1 print (as of June 2018)
Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA: 12 prints (as of June 2018)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA: 14 prints (as of June 2018)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN: 55 holdings (prints and books, as of June 2018)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: 4 prints (as of June 2018)

Alec Soth Salary

Details about Soth’s salary are not yet disclosed. However, information about how much he makes will be updated as soon as it is available.

Alec Soth Net Worth

Soth has enjoyed a long career in the art industry spanning almost three decades. Through proceeds from his work as an author and photographer, he has been able to accumulate a huge fortune. Soth is estimated to have a net worth of about $100K-1M.

Alec Soth Awards and Achievements

1999: McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN.
2001: Travel and Study Grant, Jerome Foundation, for Sleeping by the Mississippi.
2001: Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) / Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists.
2003: Santa Fe Prize for Photography.
2004: McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN.
2005: Art Works Residency Program, CEPA Gallery: Contemporary Photography & Visual Arts Center, Buffalo, NY. Whilst working on Niagara.
2006: Finalist, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. A £3000 prize.
2008: Bush Fellowship, Bush Foundation, Saint Paul, MN. A $50000 grant.
2011: Infinity Award from International Center of Photography, Publication category, for From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America.
2013: John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
2013: McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN.
2014: Knight Arts Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation An award of $35000 to create The Winnebago Workshop.

Frequently Asked Questions About Alec Soth

Who is Alec Soth?

Soth is an acclaimed author and photographer. He is famously known for his “large-scale American projects” featuring the midwestern United States His work tends to focus on the “off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America” according to The Guardian art critic Hannah Booth.

How old is Alec Soth?

Soth is an American national born on December 30, 1969, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America.

How tall is Alec Soth?

Soth has not shared his height with the public. His height will be listed once we have it from a credible source.

Is Alec Soth married?

Yes, he is married to Rachel Cartee Soth. Together they have two children. The couple resides in Los Angeles together with their children.

How much is Alec Soth worth?

Soth has an approximate net worth of $100K-1M. This amount has been accrued from his leading roles in the entertainment industry.

How much does Alec Soth make?