Taking its name from a line in the Wallace Stevens’ poem “The Gray Room”, Soth’s latest book is a lyrical exploration of the limitations of photographic representation. Following the publication of Songbook and Gathered Leaves, Soth spent some time rethinking his creative process, even going as far as taking a break from photography. His return to photography sees him stripping the medium back to its primary elements. While the large-format colour photographs in I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating are made all over the world, they aren’t about any particular place or population. By a process of intimate and often extended engagement, Soth’s portraits and images of his subject’s surroundings involve an enquiry into the extent to which a photographic likeness can depict more than the outer surface of an individual, and perhaps even plumb the depths of something unknowable about both the sitter and the photographer. Features an interview between Alec Soth and Hanya Yanagihara.
