“More important than the camera is the powerful oncamera flash I use. I really blast light into people’s faces.”
Clockwise from top: Dog in Bogota, Colombia, 2003. Petrol station photographed for the project Sleeping by the Mississippi, Fountain City, Wisconsin, USA, 2002. Man walks through Dover Burial Park, Dover, Ohio, USA, 2012. All images © Alec Soth/Magnum Photos.
going forward it became problematic. I generate these images that can be sold as prints or what have you. But in Brad’s case, as a writer it’s harder to generate income so we’ve done different things. With Michigan I partnered with the Cranbrook Academy of Art and they helped fund this trip. Three Valleys was funded in part by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. With Colorado it was more straightforward: I found three collectors in conjunction with the Denver Art Museum who will be exhibiting the work. But I really had to go out there and look for money.
Photography used to be a specialised thing. Of course it’s become more and more democratic but just in the last few years with cell phones it has exploded on this whole other level. It’s been challenging and exciting. Photographers are using other technology and other people are using photography so it’s become difficult to define yourself as a photographer. I see young photographers who get out of school and think they want to be a photographer and I think, “OK, you and 9,000 others.” But I suppose that’s true of writing and everything else. 29