 |
|
727
S. Spring Street |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| @2024 drkrm.com
|
|
LOWLIFE Opening
Reception and Book Signing Photographer Scot Sothern first patronized the marketplace of curbside prostitution on a prurient whim. He dove to the murky depths of sexual obsession, and five years later resurfaced-- shell shocked and without excuse. While there, trusty Nikon in hand, Sothern snapped what he saw: full-frontal X-rated realities, fine-art documents, black and white, pathos and pizzazz. A mix of yins and yangs, prurient and sad, funny and gut-wrenching. Lowlife is an illustrated memoir of dysfunction, a confession of a befuddled white guy maintaining a precarious connection to propriety and fatherhood while side-tripping into noirish infatuations. Sothern's images, shot mostly in Southern California between 1986 and 1990, record the existence of these disenfranchised Americans, men and women, hawking souls for the price of a Big Mac and a fix, struggling in a culture that deems them criminal and expendable. As Sothern opines, "Anyone could offer them 10 bucks to take a brick in the face and they’d hold out their palm." These timeless portraits, described as both harsh and intelligent, reveal the never changing plight of the street prostitute. The photography on display throughout Lowlife is at times explicit. The images bring to mind the works of early twentieth-century photographer E.J. Bellocq, as well as contemporary photographers Nan Golden and Diane Arbus. This exhibition contains graphic nudity and explicit content. A second generation photographer, Scot Sothern was behind a camera and in the darkroom from an early age. In the 1960s, rebellious and angry, he learned to use photography as a weapon while hiding behind the viewfinder. In September, Lowlife, photos and literary vignettes, was published in the UK by Stanley Barker. Lowlife, the memoir, will be translated and published in France in 2012, by 13e Note Editions in Paris. Links
to Interviews, articles and more photos: Other drkrm books by Scot Sothern
|