Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot (Logos)

Storytelling and the use of color and black and white, staged and candid approaches, and personal and political issues are just a few of the many arguments that the American photographer Alec Soth discusses with critic Francesco Zanot, resulting in a combination of words and images that constitutes both a complex examination of Alec Soth's work and a manual on that reading of photography itself.

Alec Soth is one of the most prominent artist of this time. He became a full member of Magnum in 2008. He is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Photography critic and curator Francesco Zanot has been working for exhibitions and books with some of the most renowned Italian and international photographers.

Alec Soth is one of the most prominent artist of this time. A full member of Magnum in 2008. He is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Alec Soth’s work is rooted in the distinctly American tradition of ‘on-the-road photography’ developed by Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Stephen Shore. From Huckleberry Finn to Easy Rider there seems to be a uniquely American desire to travel and chronicle the adventures that consequently ensue. He has received fellowships from the McKnight, Bush, and Jerome Foundations and was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are represented in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Walker Art Center. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial and a career survey at the Jeu de Paume in 2008.

His first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004 to critical acclaim. Since then Soth has published NIAGARA (Steidl, 2006), Fashion Magazine (Magnum, 2007), and Dog Days, Bogotá (Steidl, 2007). He is represented by the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York and the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis.





Photography critic and curator, Francesco Zanot has been working for exhibitions and books with some among the most renowned Italian and international photographers.
Director of the Master in Photography and Visual Design organized by Forma, Fondazione per la Fotografia, in collaboration with NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, he is also lecturer of History of Photography at IULM University, Milan. He participated to conferences and seminars on the theory and the history of photography in different universities and schools, such as Columbia University in New York, Politecnico in Milan, Università degli Studi in Milan and American Academy in Rome. He is associate editor of Fantom, photographic quarterly based in Milan and New York.