“Buffalo, New York”, by Alec Soth.

Interesting to see Alec Soth’s The Last Days of W.

Soth has until now published three major projects, each named after the place it was shot. I think it is correct to say that all three were first loosely conceived, then methodically photographed and edited over a period of time.

The first thing that is interesting about The Last Days of W is that it is an instance of a “project” photographer instead constructing something ex post facto from stuff they have around.

This is a snapshot photographer or even a photo-blogger’s method – editing diverse work to a theme on the basis of vague associations, small jokes, and mood – and I have tried it myself to try to bring some order or even a little gravity to my own messy and conceptually blank photography.

The second thing that is interesting is that this project is just brutally unsuccessful. It mistakes ambience for gravitas. It is a soup of subjects and symbols. It wants there to be meaning in jarring discontinuity. It is a dozen bad dyptichs. It is bad poetry.

To me this is less an indictment of Alec Soth than of the idea that you can ever bring meaning to work made at random, because let’s face it, Soth is a pretty interesting guy.

I still have no idea how to address this problem of having something to hang one’s hat on conceptually. I find it hard to work with a concept because I find concepts tedious after working them for a short time. I realize that this is because I am lazy and my concepts aren’t good enough, but that doesn’t eliminate the problem.

If anyone has figured this out please leave the solution in the comments. It would really help me out.