Trip Report

Documentary and Landscape

Description of Trip

• Thursday 28th January• Firstly we traveled to The Science Museum in

South Kensington. Here we went to the Alec Soth exhibition to look round and after a Julia Margret exhibition.

• Lastly we traveled to Trafalgar Square to take our own pictures relating to the themes I have been researching of Documentary and Landscape.

Alec Soth Exhibition• This text was placed at the start

of the exhibition on the wall. It explains Alec Soth as a person and as a photographer. It highlights the lines of his work that includes: Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual and Songbook.

• I found it quite interesting to read this. I especially was intrigued into how it explains that he ranges his work into fitting with different types of audiences. This makes him seem like he has as wide range of skills and inspirations that attract many different people which ultimately expands his audience.

Sleeping by the Mississippi• The text to the left describes his first main

line of work.• I really like this line of work, I like how it

includes a lot of pictures outside, they look very down to earth and like honest pictures. I think it captures real life very well.

Broken Manual

Broken Manual

• I think the pictures in this line are much more focused on the message they have, they are his most conceptual pictures. I personally like them as I think they can be interpreted in different ways, if someone did not know the actual meaning.

Niagara• I found this line to be much more based on people, the life they are living,

rather than the location and nature. I like the way these pictures don’t like manipulated or processed at all, I think he has captured real life very well. Most of the people he photographs are very expressionless. I think the situation they are in, in the picture i.e. the location and background, is very crucial to build the aspired atmospheres in these pictures.

Songbook• The pictures from this line are all in black and white, generally speaking,

there is more stuff going on in these pictures, they are more busy, and have more upfront expression and atmosphere. In a lot of them, it looks a lot less set up than some of his other lines, like the people are behaving naturally, not looking at the camera. I think this line of work is the most different, it looks less like his work. This might be because it is the most recent line, so he wanted to bring in some new ideas. However they are of course still down to earth documentary pictures. I think these are more documenting a situation, rather than documenting one single persons life.