Alec Soth

Acquired from the photographer, 2021

In May of 2011, Alec Soth set out to drive from Austin, Texas, to Oakland, California, in an RV.  His companions were fellow Magnum photographers Jim Goldberg, Susan Meiselas, Paolo Pellegrin, and Mikhael Subotzky, plus writer Ginger Strand, and their mission was to document the American Southwestern landscape. The resulting publication, Postcards from America, steps outside the traditional journey undertaken by photographers in decades past, ultimately comprising a book, five bumper stickers, a newspaper, two fold-outs, three cards, a poster and five zines – each a personal manifestation of the makers’ discoveries while on the road. ‘There is something about road trip photography that is as much about the process of its making as the photograph. The Americans is as much about Robert Frank as it is about America,’ Soth remarked. Throughout the ensuing decade, Postcards from America has seen many iterations, and remains an ongoing, collaborative project. This ever-evolving group of photographers gathers periodically in locations across America, as the occasion arises, to work in tandem towards the creation of a new documentary archive of the United States.  In 2015, Rochester 585/716: A Postcard from America Project was published by Pier 24 Photography in collaboration with Aperture Foundation.  It presents one thousand images along with commentary by Cornelius Eady, Marie Howe, Laura Wexler, and Nathan Lyons.