Alec Soth - Sleeping by the Mississippi
Joel Sternfeld - Ox Bow Archive
Throughout both pieces of work there is the idea of the
democracy of the image. Sternfeld elevates the importance of the humble potato
field, carefully crafting and working the land for images. He is not focused on
capturing the spanning vistas the site offers but instead searches for the
quieter moments. Soth moves through the landscape showing the same respect to
the landscapes and the portraiture of people he encounters. The landscapes in Mississippi tell us as much about these
places as its people do. Soth, like Sternfeld, also refrains from the sweeping
vistas of the Mississippi stating that ‘you carry it in your head’ as one views
the book.
The idea of moving through a landscape bestowing merit on all things
equally is similar in a way to the idea of the river moving through the land
encountering various changes along the way. The rhythm of the images is
dreamlike however Soth is not passive in his photography. Although there is a
feeling of passive wandering the character of the photographer is evident in
every photograph. There is also a notion of integrity, this great body of water
snaking through the landscape accepting the changes time inflicts upon it. The
towns and cities that relied on the river to sustain them in the past now find
themselves isolated and in decline. The river has not changed but with the
passage of time the places and people that occupy its shores have. Soth
captures these places and the characters with an empathy and respect.
This idea
of the integrity of the landscape is also evident in Sternfeld’s Ox Bow Archive. Referencing the Thomas
Cole painting of the same landscape, the body of work provides a commentary on
the inflictions of time and modern culture on this particular landscape. This
field, devoid of the ironies and maniacal characters of small town America in
American Prospects, is banal in every sense. Sternfeld seems to rejoice in
this, the majesty of the mundane. The photographs are all without people - a significant departure from
his earlier work. It is interesting to note that in this documenting of a
potato field, arguably the antithesis of the epic road trip, Sternfeld
addresses some of the bigger themes of modern life. The brevity of life, the
mundanity yet inevitability of death and the irrepressible passage of time are
all present in the images.
Thinking of Sternfeld as the settler working his
land, we can imagine his produce as this volume of images. The methodical
walking and photographing of the land, akin to the ploughing and reaping of
crops, imparts an intimate knowledge of the landscape. By exhibiting the
restraint to stay in one place, resisting the urge to wander, Sternfeld gains a
deep affinity with his chosen freehold which is evident in Ox Bow Archive.
Imagining Soth as the nomad to Sternfeld’s settler, the
images in Mississippi imply
restlessness and a need to keep moving typical of the hunter gatherer. Never
resting too long in one place, Soth’s narrative is poetic and dreamlike as
opposed to Sternfeld’s comprehensive documenting of the land. The nature of
poetry, in that it is suggestive of a whole but never complete, is similar to
the structure of Mississippi. It is
almost like awaking from a dream with fragmented images and trying to stitch
together the stream of consciousness. The prevalence of beds in Mississippi, including that of Charles Lindbergh, only serves to underpin this
state of conscious dreaming and landscape.
"Over and over again
I fall asleep with my eyes open, knowing I'm falling asleep, unable to prevent
it. When I fall asleep this way, my eyes are cut off from my ordinary mind as
though they were shut, but they become directly connected to this new,
extraordinary mind, which grows increasingly competent to deal with their
impressions."
