What do you think?
Rate this book
Fashion Magazine by Alec Soth
In this beautifully produced third issue of the international art/fashion collectible Fashion Magazine , the acclaimed American photographer Alec Soth plays Editor-in-Chief, Advertising Director and sole photographic contributor--to quietly mesmerizing results. Featuring exquisite printing, unexpected gatefolds, special inks, varnishes and paper changes, this magazine-as-artist's-book-as-sociological-study-as-tongue-in-cheek-(yet-also-very-real)-advertising-vehicle contains some of the most riveting work being produced by a young photographer today. Soth "While Fashion Magazine has a single photographer-author, it's still a magazine, not a book. So it doesn't follow my usual mode of slow, solitary production. It's collaboration. The ideas for the collaboration were formulated very quickly. I was approached by the folks at the Paris office of Magnum to work on this issue late last year. I immediately said yes. I was a huge fan of the previous two editions (by Martin Parr and Bruce Gilden) and was looking for an excuse to play with fashion . I often say that when I am making a portrait, I'm not 'capturing' the other person. If the photograph documents anything, it is the space between the subject and myself. Something similar is at work with Fashion Magazine . I'm not really comfortable saying I know anything about Paris or its fashion world. And I suspect that most fashionable Parisians know just as little about Minnesota. What is interesting is the space between us. My favorite example of this involves 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."
Photographer Alec Soth was born in 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he continues to live and work. He is the recipient of major fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, and was awarded the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are represented in major public collections including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Soth's widely acclaimed first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi , was published in 2004, followed by Niagara and Dog Days Bogotá in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Soth is represented by Gagosian Gallery in New York and Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis. He is an associate photographer with Magnum Photos.
Photographer Alec Soth was born in 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he continues to live and work. He is the recipient of major fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, and was awarded the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are represented in major public collections including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Soth's widely acclaimed first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi , was published in 2004, followed by Niagara and Dog Days Bogotá in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Soth is represented by Gagosian Gallery in New York and Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis. He is an associate photographer with Magnum Photos.
212 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2007
18 people want to read
About the author
Alec Soth
59 books37 followersAlec Soth (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has published over thirty books including Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004), NIAGARA (2006), Broken Manual (2010), Songbook (2015), I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating (2019), A Pound of Pictures (2022), and Advice for Young Artists (2024).
Soth has had over fifty solo exhibitions including survey shows organized by Jeu de Paume in Paris (2008), the Walker Art Center in Minnesota (2010), Media Space in London (2015), and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (2024). Soth has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013). In 2008, Soth created Little Brown Mushroom, a multi-media enterprise focused on visual storytelling. Soth is represented by Sean Kelly in New York, Weinstein Hammons Gallery in Minneapolis, Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, Loock Galerie in Berlin, and is a member of Magnum Photos.
Soth has had over fifty solo exhibitions including survey shows organized by Jeu de Paume in Paris (2008), the Walker Art Center in Minnesota (2010), Media Space in London (2015), and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (2024). Soth has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013). In 2008, Soth created Little Brown Mushroom, a multi-media enterprise focused on visual storytelling. Soth is represented by Sean Kelly in New York, Weinstein Hammons Gallery in Minneapolis, Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, Loock Galerie in Berlin, and is a member of Magnum Photos.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 8, 2014
To start, Alec Soth is one of my favorite photographers making work today. His unadorned look at people and their geographies is consistently engaging.
Fashion Magazine is one of his more popular publications, which is saying something since he seems to publish 2 or 3 things a year. As he puts it, this is not a book, it is a magazine, but really it is a book. It first looks at Paris, its designers, and fashion week, but without falling back on typical fashion photography. It is contrasted by the second half of the book which looks at Minnesotans in the heart of winter. Locations, such as the hall of a fashion show is offset by images of nature and a basketball gym. Some interesting and somewhat unexpected things happen in comparing the two, one being that the Minnesotans do not come off nearly as unfashionable as you would expect (although on close examination, his subjects were given outfits, which is only fair because the designers and models in Paris were given theirs as well).
There's a rather strange section in the middle of blurry photos of couture objects mostly, printed on newsprint. It did nothing for me. Nor did his intermittent images of nature with text such as "Lancome by Alec Soth". Didn't engage me enough to want to make sense out of it. As he put it, his job is to entertain first, to get people's attention, and then have something more to say. These did not entertain me.
Are are a few interviews also included. The one of Soth himself has some real gems of ideas. The rest are only interesting if fashion is your passion.
Fashion Magazine is one of his more popular publications, which is saying something since he seems to publish 2 or 3 things a year. As he puts it, this is not a book, it is a magazine, but really it is a book. It first looks at Paris, its designers, and fashion week, but without falling back on typical fashion photography. It is contrasted by the second half of the book which looks at Minnesotans in the heart of winter. Locations, such as the hall of a fashion show is offset by images of nature and a basketball gym. Some interesting and somewhat unexpected things happen in comparing the two, one being that the Minnesotans do not come off nearly as unfashionable as you would expect (although on close examination, his subjects were given outfits, which is only fair because the designers and models in Paris were given theirs as well).
There's a rather strange section in the middle of blurry photos of couture objects mostly, printed on newsprint. It did nothing for me. Nor did his intermittent images of nature with text such as "Lancome by Alec Soth". Didn't engage me enough to want to make sense out of it. As he put it, his job is to entertain first, to get people's attention, and then have something more to say. These did not entertain me.
Are are a few interviews also included. The one of Soth himself has some real gems of ideas. The rest are only interesting if fashion is your passion.
December 20, 2011
Fashion dies young.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews