LBM Dispatch #7: Georgia (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Georgia Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

LBM Dispatch #6: Texas Triangle (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Texas Triangle Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

Such Appetite

Peeking into the combustible sublime of America’s outer-urban colonies, Such Appetite pairs Charlie White’s intimate study of a teenage girl with poems by Stephanie Ford in a twenty-first century meditation on beauty and banality, adolescence and sprawl.

LBM Dispatch #1: OHIO (special edition)

A hand-bound portfolio featuring a tipped-in black and white photograph by Alec Soth on the cover; a copy of the Ohio Dispatch signed by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar; and a signed, numbered limited edition print by Alec Soth.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

Ping Pong

“Ping-pong is a life style, a training in attention, a diversion, a mad passion and a way of not taking anything important too seriously and taking some tiny things much too seriously.” – Pico Iyer

“Ideally, the last picture in this book would show me pumping my fist in brutish victory.” – Geoff Dyer

For several years, Alec Soth has combined his passion for both table tennis and photography by collecting vernacular ping-pong photographs. With this publication, Soth asked Geoff Dyer and Pico Iyer, writers and fellow table tennis enthusiasts, to respond to these pictures by engaging in a kind of literary ping-pong match.

LBM Dispatch #4: Three Valleys

From February 12th through February 28th, Alec Soth and Brad Zellar were on the road in California, traveling in the Valleys of Silicon, San Joaquin, and Death for the fourth installment of The LBM Dispatch. While each of these valleys has a distinct character, all of them loom large in the country’s history and mythology of success, failure, dreams, and futility. Continuing The Dispatch’s examination of community in the 21st-century United States, Three Valleys explores the brave new worlds and pervasive virtuality of Silicon Valley, the Depression-era remnants of agricultural settlements and immigrant communities in the San Joaquin, and the other-worldly boom-and-bust landscapes of Death Valley, where the Manson Family holed up at the tail end of the 1960s.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

Foam Party poster by Alec Soth

Since the New York Times Magazine wanted to publish it first, this image of a foam party in Watertown, NY was kept out of the LBM Dispatch. But as it’s one of our favorite pictures, we decided to make a poster out of it. Once you assemble the 64 sheets, however, this nearly nine foot wide image looks less like a poster than wall-sized mural. It’s like buying a Struthsky for $25.

See an audio slideshow about the making of the picture here.

LBM Dispatch #3: Michigan

From October 20th through November 5th, Alec Soth and Brad Zellar will be on the road in Michigan, producing an election season version of the LBM Dispatch in one of the country’s most diverse and politically fascinating states. The trip –a rambling search for the state of the union in towns all over Michigan– will take them across the Upper Peninsula to the Mackinac Straits, and then downstate through the enormous territory of the Lower Peninsula, including stops in Saginaw, Flint, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.

LBM Dispatch #2: Upstate

Alec Soth and Brad Zellar are spending two weeks in upstate New York. Their trip will cover more than 1000 miles, and the itinerary will range from Albany and the Hudson Valley to the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the university towns of Syracuse and Ithaca. The upstate project will continue the investigation of community life, as well as touch on the region’s landscape, institutions, literature, and long, colorful history.

The LBM Dispatch is an irregularly published newspaper of the North American ramblings of photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar.