an interview with alec soth
(buy the book here)

If looked at in a certain light, nearly anyone can be beautiful. I learned this last August on a hot Monday afternoon while in the company of Minneapolis artist Alec Soth at a bar in the dingiest hinterlands of Northeast Minneapolis...

...[Soth is] not just some photographer. He's actually an open-faced, warmly smiling, 33-year-old confidence-man operator/artist who works his way into unusual situations and then works the situation to get exactly what he wants. This includes a Memphis prostitute's room, the Angola State prison, an aging Southern matron's bedroom, and numerous other situations. He simply enters into these people’s lives momentarily and pries surprising elements of beauty from them.

via gallery hopper