©Alec Soth, The Coachlight. Mitchell, South Dakota, 2020

How much does a photograph weigh?

The most immediate answer would sound something like “4.3 MB” or “100 KB” as we are used to refer to bytes when measuring the weight of images. But, if we were to think about the weight of pictures more deeply, we would come to realize how light and volatile the frozen moments we capture are compared to the enormous weight of history. Despite this, we do not stop to pin down and crystalize life. In this sense, the photographic medium becomes a precious ally of our memories and values, reminding us how important it is to pay attention to our lives in order to feel like a part of history, to feel like we exist.

©Alec Soth,Neil. Winona, Minnesota, 2019 ©Alec Soth Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York

Across his new exhibition A pound of pictures, Alec Soth inspires us to reflect on the physicality and ephemerality of photography as a medium. He explains that this thought was born from an encounter he had in Los Angeles with a man who was selling photographs by the pound.

Through the pictures of this collection, which Soth took between 2018 and 2021, we can see a keen, genuine, and spontaneous interest for this essential question. Each image creates that sense of crystallization and suspended moment of daily life, and the most beautiful thing is that there is no feeling of artifice at all in these shoots. In his own words, Soth simply pays attention to his own attention, and in doing so he gives a value to all the things he sees through the camera. It could be a butterfly, a man bowing to a flower, a detail in the landscape, a woman lying in the bed. In all these moments, everything we see and experience is worth attention even if life keeps flowing. What we feel in the end, is a message of hope and an instance of great tenderness.

Carmen. Williams, Arizona, 2020 ©Alec Soth Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York

The exhibition will be open to the public from January 14 to February 26, 2022.

To coincide with the exhibitionm MACK Books will publish a new monograph entitled A Pound of Pictures. The publication is a reflection on the images we make and live with day to day, in the form of a winding road trip throughout the US. It includes extensive notes and texts by Soth, further illuminating the practice and philosophy of one of the most important photographers working today.

For additional information on Alec Soth please visit skny.com