Category: Flotsam

Hey, Les.

Picked up a rich piece of LBM fiction. Here’s a gem from it:

“Bob,” she said, “I love you so and want you with me, but you are lying to me, and you are lying to yourself. I can hear it in your voice, and if you don’t get it settled in a way that satisfies you, it will suck the pleasure out of the peace you’ve earned. I know you. You are samurai, dog soldier, marine fool, crazy bastard, marshal of Dodge, commando, the country-western Hector. You are all of those things. They are your nature. The girls and I are just where you park when you’re not warring. You love us, yes you do, but war is your life, it’s your destiny, it’s your identity. My advice, old man, is win your war. Then come home. Or maybe you’ll get killed. That would be a shame and a tragedy, and the girls and I will weep for years. But that is the way of the warrior and we have the curse upon us of loving the last of them.”

A guy could Google it. If you need to find the source of this pot-boiling he-man fantasy self-justification. Check out the author photo.

Yrs,

You’ve seen the book and the infomercial, now see Broken Manual images on Alec Soth’s new website: http://alecsoth.com/

Special thanks to Manon Michel for the website design.

Hey, Les.

Glad you liked my package. Damn that rain; it was clear when I dropped it off at 3 a.m.

Liked Alec’s entry on America, the get-rich/skinny/smart/laid-quick-with-no-effort nation. Left a comment for the masses there on the NYT. Hooray for democracy!

Yrs,

After months of dealing with hackers, we finally moved alecsoth.com and littlebrownmushroom.com to a new host/server. There have been a few bumps in the road but things seem to be working. Thanks for your patience.

Meanwhile, today I began installing my exhibition at the Walker Art Center. Can’t tell you how good it feels to move from the scale model to the real space. And I’m SO SO HAPPY with the show. The first thing I said upon seeing the work was “maybe my career isn’t over.” Speaking of which, today the fantastic curator Bartholomew Ryan posted an interview with me entitled: Dismantling My Career: A Conversation with Alec Soth.

I hope to post more installation pictures this week on on Tumblr / Facebook / Twitter.

Stay Tuned,

Photographing outside of Steve LaFontaine’s home in Northwest Arkansas, 2007

This week I begin installing my exhibition at the Walker Art Center. I can’t wait to see my new project, Broken Manual, on the walls. I’ve been at work on this beast since 2006.  I’ve photographed from Georgia to Alaska and just about everywhere in between. Along the way I’ve met some wonderful people. These folks are not just the ‘subjects’ of my photographs. In many cases they are true collaborators. It has been so gratifying to be in touch with two of these collaborators this week as I finally prepare our work.

• The Arkansas Cajun, Steve LaFontaine. In the process of photographing hermits, monks, survivalists and so on, I’ve met a lot of sad men. But Steve isn’t one of them. Steve lives his life with fierce conviction. He’s a lean and mean renegade, but that doesn’t prevent him from also being a really great guy. I was so touched by this recent blog post by Steve.
• Lester B. Morrison. Brother Les has been a collaborator for a number of years. A lot of you know him from this blog, but Les doesn’t get out and about much. So it was so great when he agreed to show up for his opening at the Soap Factory last Saturday night. There are picture of Lester here and here.

Stay tuned for details on my collaboration with Lester, Broken Manual (which includes a portrait of Steve LaFontaine). In the meantime, you can purchase a new trio of zines by Lester here – but act fast, 1/4 of them are already sold.

I think I finally cajoled Lester into going out into public tonight. He told me he’ll make an appearance at the opening of his exhibition at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis. The Soap Factory will be selling copies of the new Zine Trio by Lester. If you are lucky, maybe he’ll even sign them for you!

PS. See Lester’s work in the City Pages

Dear Readers,

We’re sorry the blog has been so quiet lately. We wish we could say that Little Brown Mushroom is tanned and rested after a luxurious vacation, but just the opposite is true. Over the last couple of months we’ve been frantically preparing for a cluster-bleep of activity this fall:

• Alec Soth’s upcoming exhibition, From Here To There, at the Walker Art Center and the accompanying catalog.
• Alec Soth’s new project and Steidl book in collaboration with Lester B. Morrison, Broken Manual (stay tuned for details)
• A documentary film about the making of Broken Manual, Somewhere to Disappear, by Laure Flammarion and Arnaud Uyttenhove.
• The Auckland Project, a collaborative book by Alec Soth and John Gossage.
• Brighton Picture Hunt, a collaborative book and exhibition with Carmen Soth as part of the Brighton Photo Biennial
• Ash Wednesday, New Orleans, a book derived from Soth’s ongoing New York Times series, The Continental Picture Show.
• Rodarte, Catherine Opie, Alec Soth, a new book exploring the creative world of the fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy.

We hope to provide more energy to this blog starting tomorrow. But we’re taking the rest of the afternoon off and going to State Fair (the official end to Minnesota’s summer). Hopefully we’ll post some pictures from our staff outing on our Tumblr and Facebook sites. Otherwise, come back tomorrow to check out the new publication we’re launching!

Win the ‘Little Brown Mushroom Love Pack’ over at Hey, Hot Shot.

LBM’s mission statement on PhotoEye.