Comments on: What’s Up With Alec Soth

By: Joni Karanka

Joni Karanka — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:10:55 +0000

But it was quite an honour to have that blog there for a long time. I really enjoyed the strange posts that connected many diverse topics and made you think playfully about photography. The pace at DAH’s blog is too fast to keep track, true.

By: Shameless Advertising is Something I Hate « JoshuaIntrospective

Shameless Advertising is Something I Hate « JoshuaIntrospective — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:14:32 +0000

[...] a quip from an interview with Alec Soth that changed my thinking by confirming my thoughts (if that makes [...]

By: ACP Now! » Archive » Alec Soth, About His Blog

ACP Now! » Archive » Alec Soth, About His Blog — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:13:02 +0000

[...] Soth, interviewed here during his visit to Atlanta for the ACP Lecture Series last October, answered a few questions from Rob Haggert about Soth’s blog’s silence. Congrats to Mr. Soth for becoming a full [...]

By: Giulio Sciorio

Giulio Sciorio — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:38:39 +0000

Sure blame the blog. Makes complete sense. If you don’t want to respond to emails don’t. If you don’t want to cover a friends show don’t and if they get pissed off to bad for them.

If you’re not wanting to right anymore thats cool too but why pass blame?

By: A new edition of Sleeping by the Mississippi by Alec Soth | [EV +/-] Exposure Compensation

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:36:53 +0000

[...] the topic of blogging, today I read at A Photo Editor a Q/A with Alec Soth regarding the reasons he stopped his highly followed blog from one day to the [...]

By: doug

doug — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:52:30 +0000

I miss that blog too, I’ve met alec a couple times ( I grew up near him and we have friends in common I’m not that art world cool) He is such a nice guy and the blog was a wonderful place, with a great insiders view on the art world. One of my favorite parts of the blog was the great debates that would develop in the comments. I some times wonder if beside the time commitment, if the debates got a little to not minnesota nice for him.

By: warmdriver

warmdriver — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:26:18 +0000

From what I can tell here, Soth writes well. My guess is APE conducted this interview via email, and Soth was generous enough to invest some time and energy in to his responses. His effortless, conversational tone belies a bit more work than one might imagine. Therein lies the dilemma. Just because he (or anyone) writes well doesn’t mean there is an obligation to blog. Interestingly, if this actually is Soth’s coda, the interview (and a couple of the ensuing responses) serves as an excellent primer for those considering the pros and cons of diving in to this medium.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:51:19 +0000

I was also a fan of Alec Soth’s blog. Of course there are dozens of new and good blogs since that time, but regardless of frequency, Soth’s was reliable in terms of its tone and intelligence. Thanks again for sharing Alec!

By: Paul Robert Bennett

Paul Robert Bennett — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:01:56 +0000

I enjoyed Alec’s blog and would like to see him return in any incarnation. I feel like a year ago the photo blog world was a much different place. There was an air of excitement that I think has gone away since. I recall waking up every morning and reaching under the bed for the PowerBook, knowing full well that I could count on the east coast bloggers to have already posted something new and probably inflammatory. I also felt like there was more of a community back then. I wasn’t a commenter, but I knew that I could call any of my photographer friends and discuss the postings of the day without anyone having to fire up a computer. I really enjoyed that, but those days seem to be over. Perhaps the return of Alec Soth could trigger a photo blog renaissance. Who knows?

By: tomé

tomé — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:34:17 +0000

i too was a regular reader and think those are lame excuses to have stopped. there are a million techniques to “get out of the loop”, shut down comments, change style, change subject, whatever..

anyway, thumbs up on the pertinent interview – even if it is about self promotion

By: blog.imagemlatente - monking

blog.imagemlatente - monking — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:05:23 +0000

[...] don’t quite get what’s so wrong with self promotion. Of course most of the typical me-myself-and-i blogs out there are plain boring precisely because [...]

By: Marshall

Marshall — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:53:03 +0000

Alec, I’m about to take it from the top on your blog. I can already see that I’m in for a nice treat. Thanks.

You’ll never read this will you?!

By: Lucas Cichon

Lucas Cichon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:41:42 +0000

I read a lot of Alec’s blog just a week or so ago. After the discussion here about photographers needing blogs.

There seems to have been a big change in Alec’s blog between when it started and when he quit. Looks like it grew out of control and into a full time job. It was interesting reading the comments on his blog. At first, people seemed like they were friends and a small group would comment and discuss. Later, there were just tons of comments rants, and raves.

I wondered if it just became too much and Alec just looked at it and said enough. I wonder the same thing with David Alan Harvey’s blog. I went and read that blog for the first time a few months ago. WOW, the number of comments is mind blowing. I don’t know how he keeps up with it all.

By: jesus

jesus — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:39:10 +0000

since Alec don´t write his blog i usually return from time to time to see if he does it again.
for me , the most interested thing was the posibility of listen a world respected photographer, his reflexions ,etc.
sincerely, i miss your blog alec.
all the best

By: Terence Patrick

Terence Patrick — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:23:43 +0000

I was an avid reader of Alec’s blog, particularly on his posts discussing philosophy and inspiration behind his and other photographers’ work. The negative turning point on that blog was when comments became shouting matches. The idea of Alec returning to a blog is quite nice. Perhaps in the future, his own blog will return, sans commenting feature.

By: matthew pace

matthew pace — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:06:25 +0000

To Alec..

A lot of us are interested in what you are doing along with getting your good thoughts, and don’t see your announcements as a self promo leaning on the commercial side. I found your blogs inspiring, coming from your art point of view.It showed me that Art can make it or lead to work that helps support it. As for the commercial side, lets face it, we all have to do that or how else could we afford to be doing what we do..

Perhaps you could shrink your blog, don’t feel the responsibility of having to review works of admiring photographers who value your opinion, ( charge for that!!.grin) but keep the photography world informed of what you are doing and how you are seeing and thinking.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words..but sometimes the thousand words that make up that picture is the REAL story..

blog on

matthew pace

By: words on photography » Blog Archive » alec soth breaks his blog silence

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:26:20 +0000

[...] Rob Haggart over at a photo editor interviewed Alex Soth about why he has not blogged in some time. The part I like is that he stopped blogging and reading photo blogs. Something I could stand to do. Read it all here. [...]

By: A Photo Editor - What’s Up With Alec Soth | The Click

A Photo Editor - What’s Up With Alec Soth | The Click — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:04:53 +0000

[...] Check it out here. [...]