Alec Soth (American, born 1969). Charles, Vasa, Minnesota, 2002. Chromogenic print, 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Yossi Milo and Evan Smoak, 2004.67. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Photograph courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, CUR.2004.67_Yossi_Milo_Gallery_photo.jpg)
Alec Soth (American, born 1969). Charles, Vasa, Minnesota, 2002. Chromogenic print, 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Yossi Milo and Evan Smoak, 2004.67. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2004.67.jpg)
Charles, Vasa, Minnesota
Alec Soth
Photography
Alec Soth creates a visual record of America. In his series Sleeping by the Mississippi, he depicts not only the people and places that make up life along the river, but also the shift in culture as the river flows from north to south. Soth presents these photographs as a fragmented narrative, a rambling sequence of images similar to the flow of dream imagery or the currents of the unconscious. With his interest in the representation of the United States and its inhabitants, his portraits express a wide range of feelings, from pride to loneliness and vulnerability.
This image shows a man bundled in workman’s clothes against a bleak rural landscape; he presents model airplanes to the viewer, as if explaining a project. With its implicit references to the iconic American aviator Charles Lindbergh (whose unassuming boyhood bed is shown in another photograph in the group) and to the very idea of America (in the colors and emblematic stars and stripes on one of the planes), the image is both an intimate, personal portrait of a man and his toys and a link to the rest of the series.
This image shows a man bundled in workman’s clothes against a bleak rural landscape; he presents model airplanes to the viewer, as if explaining a project. With its implicit references to the iconic American aviator Charles Lindbergh (whose unassuming boyhood bed is shown in another photograph in the group) and to the very idea of America (in the colors and emblematic stars and stripes on one of the planes), the image is both an intimate, personal portrait of a man and his toys and a link to the rest of the series.
MEDIUM
Chromogenic print
DATES
2002
DIMENSIONS
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed, numbered, titled and dated on label, verso
COLLECTIONS
Photography
ACCESSION NUMBER
2004.67
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Yossi Milo and Evan Smoak
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Alec Soth (American, born 1969). Charles, Vasa, Minnesota, 2002. Chromogenic print, 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Yossi Milo and Evan Smoak, 2004.67. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Photograph courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, CUR.2004.67_Yossi_Milo_Gallery_photo.jpg)
EDITION
Edition: Museum print, ?/5, 2 APs, 2 MPs
IMAGE
overall, CUR.2004.67_Yossi_Milo_Gallery_photo.jpg. Photograph courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, 2008
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Alec Soth
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