Lens Culture

Las Vegas Birthday Slideshow from Little Brown Mushroom on Vimeo.

Happy birthday Alec! Love this slide show and your storytelling.

British photographer Simon Roberts has generously offered a gift to the very next financial supporter of Lens Culture who contributes $250 or more. It's a signed copy of his excellent book, Motherland, along with a signed, limited edition print from that series made in Russia in 2005. The print is 11" x 14", number 44 of 50, signed verso. This is a £175 value, and about to be sold out completely.

Taxis cross the frozen Lena River, Yakutsk, 2005 © Simon Roberts


You can contribute by paying for a one-time voluntary subscription to Lens Culture via Google Checkout. All proceeds go toward the production costs and educational programs of Lens Culture.

One of many happy moments in 2009 for photography lovers was the launch of a new blog, Little Brown Mushrooms, that includes essays, videos and photographs from Alec Soth and some of his collaborators. It's always a joy to get Alec's intelligent, heartfelt take on photography and new ways to use it and disseminate it. In a recent post, he interviews Monica Haller about the book she just published called Riley's Story, which includes photos and text from a guy who served as a nurse in Abu Ghraib prison and took lots of digital pictures while he was there.

Here is the cover, and below is the informal video interview made by Alec.

From the Library: Riley and His Story from Little Brown Mushroom on Vimeo.

The book looks great, and important, and especially timely. You can download a generous PDF excerpt (114 pages!) here, which apparently covers about 1/4 of the whole book. You can get more info about the book here.