Alec Soth's NIAGARA project

[Roger Richards]

Hi folks, just a little FYI about an interview I recently did with large format photographer Alec Soth about his new documentary project, NIAGARA. It is online at The Digital Filmmaker http://digitalfilmmaker.com and The Digital Journalist http://digitaljournalist.org/contents.html

[Christopher Keth]

Funny you should post that. I was browsing some of the images in his gallery from that show and wondering a little more. I wish I had a chance to see the prints. As for the show, I just remember thinking how sad and desperate it turned out.

[Roger Richards]

Christopher, I think it really surprised Alec how the project evolved and how dark the whole thing became. As for his prints, this is the first time that he has used the digital process. His previous work from 'Sleeping by the Mississippi' were all printed as traditional C-prints in his own darkroom. He observed that after his 8x10 negatives, Portra 400NC, were drum scanned and printed that it was the first time he had ever seen grain in his prints.

[Ed Richards]

I like the pictures of the falls, but I do not "get" the motel shots. Perhaps this looks more exotic to someone from NYC than it does to someone who stays in these places more regularly. I remember (a long time ago) when the Last Picture Show came out and the critics thought it was surreal, but those of us from Texas saw it as a documentary.

[tim atherton]

"I like the pictures of the falls, but I do not "get" the motel shots. Perhaps this looks more exotic to someone from NYC than it does to someone who stays in these places more regularly."

Isn't that part of the point? It isn't exotic - it's the grungy, mundane, grey, depressing exisitence that seems to make up a good deal of life in N America - essentially it is documentary (this is Magnum, after all...). Why just focus the camera on the pretty stuff, when there is so much more of this stuff that we seem so willing to put up with?

[Frank Petronio]

I think it is brillant work. Smart people are usually quiet.

[Ed Richards]

I guess I do not see much that Eggleston has not done before. As for the falls, it is not that it is pretty, it is that he has a vantage point and way of capturing the water movement that I have not seen applied to the falls before. I guess as a LF person I should not criticize the ethic that pointing a LF camera at something makes it art.:-)

[Roger Richards]

I think that Alec was aiming for the sum of the whole to convey what he saw and felt. The whole project is really intriguing stuff. When I first showed it to my colleagues at The Digital Journalist, everyone, who are mostly from a photojournalism background, responded that there was indeed something there that made them want to keep looking.

[Kirk Gittings]

I think the work is exceptionally weel execited but certainly not "new" aesthetically. That deadpan aesthetic is a well worn path. Only the subject is new.

"He observed that after his 8x10 negatives, Portra 400NC, were drum scanned and printed that it was the first time he had ever seen grain in his prints."

What am I to surmise from this statement. Is this viewed as a good result from switching to digital printing or a bad artifcact from a bad workflow that ends up sharpening the grain? How large is he printing?

[Roger Richards]

Kirk, my post was incomplete. It was not something he expected to see. I suggested that the grain was because of the scanning process, as his prints are not that large for 8x10, 'only' 24x30 and 32x40 inches. I believe that it is because he shoots color negative, and as you know many drum scanner operators prefer and are more familiar with color transparency film.