SCôP Exhibition | 美国摄影艺术家埃里克·索斯（Alec Soth）中国首次个展即将开幕
上海摄影艺术中心 (SCoP) 荣幸呈现：美国摄影艺术家埃里克·索斯（Alec Soth）首次中国个展——《我与你：埃里克·索斯》。他被《英国每日电讯》作家米克·布朗（Mick Brown）誉为描绘美国当代社会和地理图景最伟大的在世摄影师之一。2004年凭借处女作《眠于密西西比河畔》在纽约惠特尼双年展一炮而红，迅速受到世界各大艺术机构青睐。2006年成为玛格南图片社成员，迄今已经出版了超过25本著作。
最熟悉的陌生人
埃里克·索斯的独到之处在于他用摄影对“人”本身的探索。在运用摄影的社会纪实功能之外，索斯从平凡的社会光景中观察大时代里的小人物，通过镜头与被拍摄者产生了微妙的化学反应。他喜欢走进人们的生活，无论是步入居住空间内部，或是拍摄袒露在镜头前的与被拍摄者相关的细节，又或是通过相机焦点的移动来控制观者的视觉重心。索斯始终在小心翼翼地探索他与被拍摄者之间的距离和空间关系。
I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating
Vince, New York City, 2018
© Alec Soth
索斯用他的作品向人们展示了挖掘生活深度的意义，证明了摄影是可以通过捕捉私密场景，来展现与拍摄宏大公共图像同样强大的世界观。作为一位耐心的观察者，他在创作过程中常常花大量的时间精力与被拍摄者相处，因此他的作品往往能够表现出超越静止画面的，优美的诗歌特质。“亲密与孤寂”在索斯的摄影中随处可见，这样的氛围也成为了他的图像语言特点。他将自己完全沉浸在某一时刻的情绪中而创作出的非常规肖像，让观者能够从中找到自己的影子。
2004年，索斯凭借《眠于密西西比河畔》这一拍摄美国小镇人物肖像的系列第一次受到关注。随后几个系列分别探索了从“爱”到“可见（不可见）”再到“逃离”的各种主题，每个系列都与美国中西部的生活背景息息相关。因其独特的视角，索斯被誉为当今描绘美国社会及地理图景最杰出的摄影师之一。
Broken Manual, 2008
© Alec Soth
Sleeping by the Mississippi
Charles, Vasa, Minnesota, 2002
© Alec Soth
摄影是埃里克·索斯与世界连接的桥梁
《我与你：埃里克·索斯》不仅仅是他的个人回顾展，而是包含了他对自己、对摄影回溯和思考的一次全新艺术实践。“一个伟大摄影师的标志不是拍出一张惊艳的照片，而在于构建出一个完美的作品集合。” 索斯如是说道。本次展览《我与你：埃里克·索斯》在他跨越了20多年的摄影生涯中精选了最具代表性的作品。囊括了：《完美陌生人》、《寻找爱》、《眠于密西西比河畔》、《尼亚加拉》、《破碎手册》、《歌本》和最新系列《我知道你的心跳有多剧烈》，借此观众们可以透过索斯不同时期的作品与我们一起见证他心路历程的变化。
埃里克·索斯形容自己是一个内向且害羞的人，而摄影提供了他一个接近陌生人的理由，摄影是他与世界连接的桥梁。作为展览的中心系列，《我知道你的心跳有多剧烈》是索斯在长达一年的沉寂之后所创作的。在那一年中，索斯反复思考并追寻着一个问题： “一张照片究竟能够告诉我们什么？”或者说，“在如今这个每一秒都有50万个图像诞生的世界里，还有可能创作出有意义的照片吗？”在本次展览中，他的思考将通过他摄影生涯中这44幅非凡作品逐渐揭晓答案。上海摄影艺术中心也试图以此，邀请大家与埃里克·索斯一起，在本次展览中寻找我们平凡生活里容易受忽略却值得被记录的痕迹。
Photography as a witness of life
Shanghai Center of Photography (SCoP) is honored to present Amercian photographer Alec Soth’s first solo exhibition “The Space Between Us” in China. Alec Soth is described by Mick Brown of Britain’s Telegraph newspaper as “one of greatest living photographers of America’s social and geographical landscape”. Since his debut series Sleeping by the Mississippi, 2004, created an immediate stir the same year of its release at the Whitney Biennial, Alec Soth’s works have been presented in museums and galleries around the world. Soth was invited to join Magnum Photos in 2006, and through his own imprint Little Brown Mushroom, as well as in collaboration with others, has published over 25 photo books to date.
‘Soth has made a "photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers" and photographs "loners and dreamers".’
- New York Times art critic Hilarie M. Sheets
‘His work focuses on "off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America."’
- Guardian art critic Hannah Booth
‘Soth is the greatest living photographer of America’s social and geographical landscape.’
- Telegraph writer Mick Brown
The Familiar Stranger
A unique aspect of Soth's work lies in his exploration of how to photograph "people". Besides uses photography as a medium to record an encounter, Soth pays particular attention to observing the little people in the big era, particularly the mundane nature of their social life, creating a delicate chemical reaction between himslef and the subject. Soth enjoys walking into a person’s life, whether to step into their living space, or shoot some detail of their eonvironment, or by using depth of field and focal points to direct the viewers’ attention. At all times, Soth is carefully examining the space between himself and the subject.
Soth uses his process to show people the importance of digging into life, demonstrating that by capturing intimate scenes photography can express as strong a world view as by photographing grand public events. As a patient observer, he spends a lot of time with each of his subjects. The works often present a sense of poetry beyond the still picture. This aura of intimacy and solitude is everywhere in Soth's works, and is a unifying feature of his visual language. Giving himself up to the mood of a moment, he enables viewers to see themselves through the distinctly unconventional portraits that result.
Soth first caught attention in 2004 with a series of portraits of people living in small-town America, a project he titled “Sleeping by the Mississippi”. This was followed by a succession of projects exploring topics from ‘love’ to ‘(in)visibility’ to ‘escape’, each within the context of mid-western American life. For reasons of his unique perspective, Soth has been described as one of greatest photographers of America’s social and geographical landscape at work today.
Photography as the bridge between Soth and the world
“The Space Between Us” is not a fully retrospective exhibition, but an art practice including the revelation of Soth’s rethink about himself and photography. “The mark of a great photographer isn’t taking one amazing photo,” he says, “but the ability to assemble an amazing collection”. “The Space Between Us” includes representative works from each of Soth’s major series – “Perfect Strangers”, “Looking for Love”, “Sleeping by the Mississippi”, “Niagara”, “Broken Manual”, “Songbook” and latest “I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating”, allowing viewers to follow along with his emotional and physical journeys, and the creative path he has taken through different periods of his work.
Soth describes himself as an introverted, shy person. Photography provides him a chance to approach strangers, and becomes a bridge for him to connect the world. As the focus of the exhibition, Soth’s latest project, “I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating”, was produced after a year-long hiatus in which Soth pondered the burning question “What can a photograph really tell us about anything?” Or, “How is it possible to make meaningful photographs in a world where half a million images are taken every second?” His musing is revealed here in 44 extraordinary images from Soth’s career so far. This exhibition “The Space Between Us” is also conceived to encourage us to look at the normal life that surrounds us and find the value in even the most humble and ordinary of lives.
“The Space Between Us” opens at Shanghai Center of Photography (SCoP) on 1 August 2020. This is the first solo exhibition in China for Alec Soth. We look forward to showing you this group of extraordinary works！
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地址：上海市徐汇区龙腾大道2555号-1
参观时间：10:30 - 17:30 周二至周日，周一闭馆
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