ABOUT

Alec Soth

is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Soth’s work is rooted in the distinctive American tradition of “on-the-road photography” observing people in quotidian life, developed by Walker Evans. He describes his own photography as a process of “wandering around finding things” and as a “document of performance.” His photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo Biennials. In 2008, a large survey exhibition of Soth’s work was exhibited at Jeu de Paume in Paris and Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. In 2010, the Walker Art produced a large survey exhibition of Soth’s work entitled From Here To There. Alec Soth’s first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004 to critical acclaim. Since then Soth has published NIAGARA (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007), Dog Days, Bogotá (2007), The Last Days of W (2008), and Broken Manual (2010). Soth has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013). In 2008, Soth started his own publishing company, Little Brown Mushroom. Soth is represented by Sean Kelly in New York, Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis, and is a member of Magnum Photos.

For more on Alec Soth, see: alecsoth.com/photography

Brad Zellar

is an American author and journalist. Zellar’s writing often is accompanied by photographs; he has collaborated several times with photographer Alec Soth. The Coen brothers film A Serious Man, nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture, took some inspiration for the visuals based off Zellar’s book Suburban World: The Norling Photos. His book Conductors of the Moving World was named in TIME’s “Best of 2011: The Photobooks We Loved,” and the recipient of the 2012 Photography for Design Professional Award from D & AD (British Design & Art Direction. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, The American Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, and the Minnesota Magazine Publishers Association, as well as a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. His fiction has appeared in numerous publications, and House of Coates, his LBM collaboration with Lester B. Morrison, is being reissued next year by Coffee House Press.

For more on Brad Zellar, see: yourmanforfuninrapidan.blogspot.com