talk response, hyun.

Alec Soth

Before the talk, I knew and recognized his name but not his work. I just knew that he was a famous photographer. So I decided to wait until the talk starts and listen. Maybe that’s why I was disappointed of the talk because I thought he would have prepared more than he did actually just because all I know was his name and the fact that he was famous. And I wanted someone inspiring. The talk started without any particular purpose or aim I felt. I think it was really just a talk. The start was almost like “okay, I’m here, what should we talk about, I don’t know, but let’s do this because I’m here, what do you wanna know”. I just thought, maybe he’s a cool fun photographer that I don’t really know of.

In general, He talked about the projects he had done/participated in the past called “sleeping by the Mississippi”, and some zines he worked on with writers, and the project he is working on now which is called “Little Brown Mushroom”. Also, he works with other people a lot, for example, writers, they would just plan a travel and go and Alec would take pictures and the writer would write. For the Mississippi project, He said, He was “running away from society but didn’t actually want to be alone, needed company, hungry for interaction and collaboration”. I think that was especially something to remember because I thought that was “real” what he said in terms of instinct, human, and emotion. His talk kind of made me want to go outside. Going outside to interact with people who are in this area or other area, Just working with other people sound somewhat interesting. To me, when it comes to doing some work, I always kind of knew what I want so I plan and do by myself because I just feel comfortable that way. However, I think it might be fascinating to work with other people in same situation because I don’t know what they would do because they are not me.

Also, I thought I want to start zines too. I think it has a lot of potential because self publishing can give me some idea to figure out what I’m capable of and what I want to do especially because I am interested in photo, typography, etching (printmaking).. the talk kind of made me think and consider what I really want to do later.

I think I was disappointed because I could feel he didn’t really prepare for the talk and how he answered to audiences but it made me think many things of what he said and his images are beautiful. He could have explained or talked better, though. After the talk, I realized how important it is to convey one’s idea or thoughts well with right and considerate choice of words.