This is like ASMR for photographers

Thank you for sharing this. It’s truly appreciated.

Really enjoyed this, Alec. The KZfaq photography community is in dire need of this type of meaningful analysis. More please.

everytime you said "don't worry, I won't show all of it" I was hoping you would show all of it. Thank you for this!

This was perfect. Though I think I missed the bit where you said "Thank you to Squarespace" and "please click like and subscribe". More please.

Love that you use the words 'challenging' and 'difficult' where many others would simply saying boring. Photographers like Eggleston show us that nothing is boring, it's only a question of how, and what, one perceives.

I brought up this book in my photo class and now my photography teacher loves me. Ty Mr. Soth 😌

I think this might be the best photography video I've ever seen on KZfaq. And I'm not exaggerating. Your insights are so on point. Not surprised considering the quality of your online masterclass, but can you do it for your whole library ? Pretty please ? :D

Letting you know: Yes please do more of this.

William Eggleston's Guide was so life changing for me. Indescribably so. Like a karate chop to my imagination. Thanks for this discussion. It was hugely interesting and smart.

Please don't stop doing this kind of videos

It seems like I never fail to enjoy hearing you speak, Alec. Pls go on with this initiative of yours! Thx

Thank you for this, Alec! As someone who doesn't have a formal education in art or photography, videos like this are an invaluable resource to learn about the importance of editing and sequencing. Thoroughly enjoyed this and I hope you'll do more this year!

Probably the best format I have seen on KZfaq ever. Could listing to you talking about photo books for ages. Thank you very much Alec!

This is gem! I feel like I’m taking an amazing class with an amazing teacher in my own home. Absolutely love learning your insights. I love the casual pacing and vibe. Thank you so much!

Dear Alec, just two days ago I have found out you have a youtube channel. I have binged instantly all your videos. I can ´t even described how I feel. Thank you, thank you. Please continue talking about the books from your collection. My best regards, Miroslav

Thank you Alec. I was comfortably enjoying a morning coffee in my pjs with the sun on my back and found this. Yes, it was great. Led to another cup of coffee and a new inspiration for what can be photographed. John Szarkowski was such a master editor and poetic communicator of everything photography. Poetry. Sequencing. Less, not more. We are surrounded with more. 2020 has taught us that less is better than more. Unless we’re talking about good conversation and talks like this. Please keep them coming Alec, we need more.

It would be great if you could do an analysis on Lee Friedlander.

If this is called 'rambling', then ramble on! I enjoyed every minute of this Mr. Soth. It's a nice opportunity and insight to hear (and see) one master talking about another master.

One of the first photo books I bought, second hand, before buying the other 450+ or so ;-) Highly enjoyed many of your talks so far!

As a retired UPI photographer and an Alec Soth fan, I enjoyed this talk greatly! as the books were sometimes tough to understand, a lot was sorted out for me by Alec's words. Rambling and Democratic with the best photos acknowledged!...

Once we understand his perspective, nothing is challenging, nothing is strange, nothing is hard to like and there’s no mistake into the sequence. There’s not even the desire of being curious of the other 10.000 photographs. It just makes sense and we see the flow appearing. It explains why it could be edited by someone else’s and why there’s so many books. The choice is not important. Our judgement and desire to find an explanation based on concept is misleading us to fail into the correct interpretation. Classifying the photographs into like « Interior » is really a mean joke but also giving a clue toward the solution. The edit without knowing how has done it after knowing who did it for the other ones, is also a clue. Same photographs, different edit is also a clue. The ennemies are our expectations, our déductives mind, our taste and them editing in a way that it is misleading but also genius way that makes his perspective blend into his highest standards photographs. Thank you for the inspiration and the ranting that is pure magnesium black fire starter for some minds. This is daunting and freeing at the time. Only making it ours will ease the feeling and tension.

Alec, listening to you talk about your photography and other photographers is a pleasure. You always speaks with openness and sincerity. I want to hear you talk more about book editing, but also about photography in general. It is very important what you are doing, for everyone who is interested in photography.

Now I understand what kind of photographer I am a little more. I also like to photograph all sorts of what seems to be mundane items of the world around me and hate editing... 😬👍📸 Thank you for the talks I really enjoy them.

Thank you for your time and for sharing your knowledge, analyse and thoughts. This was extremely interesting. Good food for thought!

Dear Alec, thank you. Your voice is soothing. Thoughts after watching: what tells apart a challenging photograph from an unsuccessful one. What makes a photograph worth looking at.If pictures are random , what holds them together. And what is modern art without an idea to support it. Warmest greetings from Berlin

This is my first video I've ever watched like this, and my first time experiencing Eggleston. I am blown away. The end of your video had me drawn in. Eggleston's guide is a seriously beautiful and equally ugly. Gosh. The emotions I had no idea I would find in a photo book.

Thanx for letting us peaking into your mind :) ... More please !

This was a incredible video. Thank you for sharing your views and passion on Eggleston. It really made appreciate his work even more, especially the Guide.

It's so easy to get lost in the technologies and practices of photography. Thank you for reminding me to look at photographs. More, please.

Please never stop these. It’s like educating me while in a meditative state. Thank you Alec

Wow, thank you for all your videos! Please keep doing it. You are a huge inspiration!

I could listen to more of that “rambling talk”... Thank you for the much appreciated time and lesson !

Keep going! We love that! Greetings from Greece

we all needed this channel, thank you

That was great!!! Thank you very much for this video!!!

Amazing, Alec. Thank you!

Hi Alec, Thank you so much for your time. I think this is wonderful, to you thinking about young people as well.

Thank you for this.

More rambling please. Thanks!

Loving these series, Alec.

Thank you Alec!!!!!!

this was awesome. thank you

this is is wonderful. thank you.

Continue!! this is so great!

Brilliant!!! Thank you so much.

Please do more of these! Was an incredibly enjoyable and insightful watch!

This was amazing! Eggleston is my favourite photographer and you've made me see more things in his photos. I am fascinated by the question of how far the editing of the pictures is relevant to the understanding of his photos. Maybe one should not see his "democratic" approach as a "concept" (i.e. as opposed to photographing a certain subject matter) but really as the absense of a concept - I mean, he was not intellectual about his pictures and he didn't care much about the editing, both of which would make sense if he were persuing a concept. To me it seems that Eggleston's choices of what to shoot/what composition to use etc. were determined to a particulary large part by his subconscious. It seems like he would shoot something because it "spoke" to him in a way that he was probably not able to explain himself (and that would maybe only become more banal when attempted to be explained). What, to me, supports this thesis is that he shot very fast, almost passing by, and that he was very reluctant to talk about the meaning of his photos. If seen that way, the point is not that he shoots an oven, because it's as interesting a subject as anything else, but because that particular oven at that moment in that light corresponded to a diffuse, maybe subconscious, emotion that he had (that to you in the video translated to "suicidal"). To me that makes sense, because even his most "challenging" photographs, that don't have any quality that I can rationally grasp like beauty, surprise, interesting colour or subject matter etc., they still have an emotional quality that speaks to me. As far as editing is concerned, the job of the editor would not be to find something like "coherence" or "a story", but rather to replicate the experience of obliviously drifting through a day, with no sense of time, direction or purpose and no interference to the stream of consciousness - just like a child playing outside all day. (Which I guess is just what you said in your video.) Maybe the best way to present his photos would be either in the order they were taken on that day, or randomly (i.e. by a random generator on a screen, different every time you watch them). Or you could see the editing process as an attempt at psychoanalysis and try to find a subject matter in the potentially subconscious choices that went into the photos - which is maybe what happened in the case of the guide, where the editor distilled the subjct matter of boyhood and the mix of nostaliga and anxiety that goes with the transition from boyhood to adulthood. Anyway, I was inspired by your rambling to ramble on a bit. I'll get a coffee and look through the "Guide" now, I think.

Thank you Alec! More please.

This was awesome!!!

Thank you so much for these!

Mind blown. To borrow your words, this was seriously challenging. Thanks?

Thank you for this! More please

Love it! Thank you Alec

I love this. More please!

Thanks Alec, this is a treat.

You’re so great. Thank you!

That was amazing. Would gladly watch more like this. Very insightful.

It was GREAT ! please continue ! Thank you !

alec, thank you. please do more. i need this in my life

Absolutely loved this!

This is wonderful. More please!

Hi, Alec. I am your fan who lives in Korea. I like your books so much. I felt your images as much as I could at the photo library today. I love that I can see you often on KZfaq. Instagram feels so hectic and crowded. I'll look forward to your move.

Very enjoyable and enlightening. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I’d love to see more.

Thanks' for sharing, looking forward to more.

Those are amazing! Thank you so much!

Thank you for sharing this. It’s awesome!

i so thoroughly enjoy these videos!

Thank you Alec.

I loved this talk. I would definitely enjoy seeing more. Thank you for taking the time to film/post this.

wonderul, thank you so much for doing this, Alec!

Loved it, thank you

Thank you Alec. This is just brilliant, I could stay hours and hours watching. Can’t wait for the next ones!

Thank you, Alec. This is truly special.

Thank you. Really enjoying this format

Enthusiastic +1 to more of these, especially books that include narrative and discussion of photography or that are instructive. This talk is so good. Love it.

thank you Alec, please do some more :)

This is like a Masterclass on William Eggleston! Thank you so much for this incredible video.

This video format is great - looking forward to seeing more of these!

Oh yes please keep making these! I feel like I learned a ton from this ramble, thanks man

Love how calming and inviting the format of these videos are, and informative and revealing. Thanks alec

Hi Alec, thanks for your time and the channel. Maybe the way to resolve Eggleston’s lack of editing and choice over his published photos is to remember Lacan’s reworking of Descartes‘s self-possessing I which has become central to the liberal fantasy of the subject. Lacan also never wrote most of his seminars and used his students' notes and published those, his main point was that the self is not entirely a master of its domain, even if you could speak about self and mastership at all. He said “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think.” (Complete quote: “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think. I am not whenever I am the plaything of my thought; I think of what I am where I do not think to think.” I guess what I’m trying to get at is: If Eggleston took all these pictures, and the editor selection and power over the book does not erase Eggleston here, maybe it reveals to us something even more essential to Eggleston’s work. After all, why should good work or good selection only represent our work? Why do we even take these photos? Isn’t that maybe that is what is democratic about the forest. IG: @boynative.jpg

That was great! Please do more :)

Really enjoyed this and learned a lot. Thanks for doing it.

I really appreciate you doing this. Please do more.

It's all food for thought. Damn it is. The photos of Eggleston makes an impact in seeing our world, our surroundings. This books will leave no one indifferent. I like the series to be continued.

so insightful, thank you much for this!

Really enjoyed this, thanks Alec! Please do more when you can!

thanks for sharing!

This is great. More of this please.

would love to see more of these - absolute superb!

Yes, please make more !

Thank you Alec, great talk!

Thanks Alec. It’s such a great analysis of editing you’ve done. Hugely educational. Hope you could continue. 👏👌

Thank you so much for this. So hopeful there will be more!

Incredibly well done, super cool format and amazing content. Thank you!

What a great video with such interesting insights. Please, do more of these.

Sometimes when if people are very proficient at something, it's hard for them to do it badly. I find it entertaining to imagine Mark Holborn trying really hard to make a democratic edit, but every time he ends up with ten volumes of neatly labeled projects. (Also, thank you Alec! This amazing. Please make more)

I truly do appreciate these videos! It is nice to go through work and peel back the layers and ideas.

Listening to your ramblings makes me happy! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏻