"Dream journeys"? I think I've identified 4 places I NEVER want to go after viewing this photo essay! Thank you!
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Lovely work! I really like the varying size of the pictures.
I am really disappointed of how you showed Ukraine. You didn't even bother to take photos of good part of my native country. I was born and raised in Kiev. It makes me sad that you decided to show only destruction and desperation. In other countries you at least went to homes and saw many different sides of people's moods and feelings. I would recommend you to visit Lviv, Kiev or Carpathian region. Ukraine is beautiful, full of greenery and strong people. Make sure next time you can catch it on your camera. I am sure that many Ukrainians will be thankful for that in such hard times.
This is beautiful! Great photos! Loved this work.
Those pictures are amusing; I like especially the photos from Tokyo. The photografer did the same I have done before went to Tokyo. He have seen the film of Sophia Capolla "Lost In Translattion". I've seen it 2 our 3 times before. The jet lag is a big problem but as Scarlet Jhonson I've stay at the Hotel window waiting for the morning cames. The red ligths in the top of the buildings flashing are like a heart in the city .
Thank-you for an amazing trip around the world and I didn't have to leave my apartment!
It's remarkable how similar we all are if we remove the extremists.
Amazing!! Nigeria & Venezuela were especially stunning. Please have more photography like this in the future, NYT Mag!
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After reading and seeing the newsstand copy of the Magazine I know that I never want to go to any of the places featured, except maybe Venezuela, which I visited in the 60s, when its politics returns to sanity.
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Sorry for dumping on Mr. Soth again; he does seem to do interesting work. But I do think he's being less than honest in his claim of choosing Tokyo because it's a "Dream Journey" for him, per the idea of the whole collection of 6 photo essays. NO ONE takes their dream journey someplace to stay inside the hotel the entire time. I think the stay-inside-the-hotel-roomidea was simply a clever way to sell an assignment to an editor, without having to do all the research one would normally do to prepare for an overseas job. Not to mention that Tokyo is exceptionally clean and safe -- and you can fly there nonstop on a choice of excellent airlines featuring lie-flat beds in Business!
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I'm not alone in questioning Alec Soth's concept here. It seems the idea is to say:
"I've gotten to be such an acclaimed photog that I was able to hoodwink the Times into flying me all the way to Tokyo (likely Business Class and probably with an assistant or two) and put me up 5 nights in a 5 star hotel, even though I told them I'dstay inside my room the entire time."
"And best of all, after ALL that money, all I came back with -- aside from a couple of skyline shots they could have gotten from any stock house -- are a bunch of nice shots I could just as easily have set up in a NY studio, with the help of a couple of models supplied by the concierge at the Hotel Kitano)"
I also question his taste in movies, proclaiming the setting was inspired by his devotion to "Lost in Translation" -- one of the most boring, pointless films in recent memory. Like this photo essay, that film was also an ego piece, designed to demonstrate how Bill Murray was so fabulous he didn't even have to try to act, and that Francis Ford Coppola, as of 2003 at least, still had enough Hollywood mojo left to get backing for his daughter to direct a feature.
"I've gotten to be such an acclaimed photog that I was able to hoodwink the Times into flying me all the way to Tokyo (likely Business Class and probably with an assistant or two) and put me up 5 nights in a 5 star hotel, even though I told them I'dstay inside my room the entire time."
"And best of all, after ALL that money, all I came back with -- aside from a couple of skyline shots they could have gotten from any stock house -- are a bunch of nice shots I could just as easily have set up in a NY studio, with the help of a couple of models supplied by the concierge at the Hotel Kitano)"
I also question his taste in movies, proclaiming the setting was inspired by his devotion to "Lost in Translation" -- one of the most boring, pointless films in recent memory. Like this photo essay, that film was also an ego piece, designed to demonstrate how Bill Murray was so fabulous he didn't even have to try to act, and that Francis Ford Coppola, as of 2003 at least, still had enough Hollywood mojo left to get backing for his daughter to direct a feature.
I have never seen more dystopian "dreams" in a photo essay on tourism. Really off-putting stuff.
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The Black Sea: Depressing before the fall of the Communists; depressing, still.
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Japan--It's Just Like Lost in Translation!
So a photographer goes to Tokyo and stays in a hotel he saw in an American movie; he imports some people who seem stereotypically quirky and odd, like in the movie. One of the women has a wig reminiscent of one worn in the movie. Maybe he should have stayed home and just used some stills from the movie. . .
So a photographer goes to Tokyo and stays in a hotel he saw in an American movie; he imports some people who seem stereotypically quirky and odd, like in the movie. One of the women has a wig reminiscent of one worn in the movie. Maybe he should have stayed home and just used some stills from the movie. . .
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Impresionantes fotografías
must-see