Somewhere to Disappear - Alec Soth

[BarryS]

Somewhere to Disappear (http://www.somewheretodisappearthefilm.com/) is a new documentary that follows Alec Soth as he documents people who've retreated from society. The trailer looks pretty interesting.

[Ash]

Cool, thanks

[Mark Woods]

Very interesting. Thanks.

[darr]

Can't wait to see it when its finished!
Thanks for posting!

[Brian C. Miller]

I wonder how he found out about these people in the first place. How do you find out about someone who doesn't want to be found?

[Mark Woods]

Good question. I used to have a friend who would disappear in the mountains of Colorado for 6 months at a time. He and his horse and the necessary tools to live. I asked what he did, and he said that he thought a lot.

[BarryS]

Despite living off the grid, I imagine they periodically stop in nearby towns to buy supplies and word gets around. If you have enough time to roam around and talk to people, and search--you can at least find some of them.

[Tony Evans]

I'm reminded of an old rugby song about the Fundamental Oozel Ikel Bird that flew around in ever decreasing concentric circles, finally disappearing.........

[Scott Knowles]

I think Barry has it, they do on occasion come to town(s). I spent two summers with the USGS looking for wells in the Oregon coast range and some were on property with roads almost invisible to anyone, but they all had power to the property and they all has a post office address. Best person to ask is almost always the USPS mistress, at least until the USPS starts closing many of the smaller offices. And much as they want to hide, if they own the property, they're on tax rolls, and if not, they're probably squatting on someone's land, probably public (ours), and so they've run into people and government employees who know where they generally are living.

[Ed Kelsey]

You can run but you can't hide ?

[Kirk Gittings]

I like Soth's work allot but that trailer is pretty weak IMO. It needed to show some of his prints from those locations. He's a PHOTOGRAPHER show some work.

[BarryS]

Yeah, I was sort of waiting to see some images connected to the people in the trailer, but it's more of a teaser. The film documents the work that went into Soth's Broken Manual project (http://alecsoth.com/photography/projects/broken-manual/), so some of the work is available online.

It'll be interesting to see how the film splits between Soth and his process vs. the subjects. My guess is the filmmakers thought there was more of a draw emphasizing the subjects rather than the the photographer for the trailer.

[Noah A]

...

It'll be interesting to see how the film splits between Soth and his process vs. the subjects. My guess is the filmmakers thought there was more of a draw emphasizing the subjects rather than the the photographer for the trailer.

I should certainly hope that a photographer's subjects are more interesting than the photographer. I like Soth's work and he's a genuinely nice guy. I'm pretty sure he would want the attention on his subjects, not on himself.

As photographers, of course we're interested in his process and it will be interesting to see him work.

I hope I get a chance to see the film soon, it does look interesting.

[Noah A]

I agree with Kirk though, I hope the film shows some of his final photographs.

[paulr]

I think it looks interesting. I don't like films as a vehicle to see photographs (Ken Burns makes me f'ing crazy). I'd like to see the film and photos separately, for their individual strengths.

[Ash]

The final prints are on his site. I hope the movie avoids being about the prints, more about the process and the people, a living essay rather than reading 20 pages at the start of the monograph.

[Kirk Gittings]

Not me. If the film was by him yes. If its about him making photographs, show me some photographs in conjunction with the setting etc. I want to see what he saw in these people and settings. Otherwise its more about the filmmakers.

[Brian Ellis]

You can run but you can't hide ?

That's what Martha Reeves and the Vandellas said. Apparently they were right.