Magnum photographer Alec Soth is blogging again with Little Brown Mushroom. His top ten photobooks of 2009 are reviewed here. They are predictably eclectic! His old blog was excellent, and different. A pity he stopped writing it, finishing with this
I’m hitting the road and hanging up the blog. Join me for a non-virtual visit in Memphis (Oct. 5th) and Atlanta (Oct. 11th). Otherwise, send me a letter – I’m sick of email.
I’ll leave with a poem:
When I Heard the Learned Astronomer
by Walt WhitmanWhen I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
You can find a link to his old blog on his website, or just click here.
“Soth uses an 8*10 camera from the late 1980’s that makes almost painting like pictures. He follows the complicated process of using large-format camera and says he is lucky if he manages to make one or two exposures on a given day of shooting” (from Magnum Magnum).
– Rory