Alec Soth:

Photographic Storytelling

Key Projects: Broken Manual

2006_03zl0016
USA. 2006.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 2

Broken Manual: In 2010, Alec Soth released Broken Manual, a publication that
explores the desire to disappear, the people who crave an escape
from both their lives and civilization itself – such as monks,
Alec Soth in survivalists, hermits, runaways, and more – and the places where they
seek refuge. Modelled on various self-published pamphlets

Conversation with and underground instruction manuals that Soth encountered during
his research at the time, the book represented a significant departure
from the more conventional documentary approach of Soth’s early
Aaron Schuman career (such as in Sleeping by the Mississippi and NIAGARA), and
incorporated both autobiographical and fictional elements, as well
as drawings, quizzical images, and the writings of “Lester B.
Morrison” – a pseudonym that Soth assumed for the purposes
The Magnum photographer talks of playing the character of a recluse himself within his own story.
about the personal impetus for
making Broken Manual, the desire Alongside its publication, Broken Manual also took exhibition form,
to be an artist, and the frustrations first appearing at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2010;
of photography since then it has served as one of the chapters in Soth’s survey project,
Gathered Leaves, which has been touring internationally since 2015.

by Aaron Schuman (The following conversation was conducted via Skype,

on 20th March 2018)
Originally published on magnumphotos.com
April 14, 2018
Aaron Schuman: HiAlec. Thanks for finding some time to talk about
Broken Manual.

Alec Soth: S ure. What kind of structure are you in? It looks like
a barn or something?

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 3

2007_05zl0072.
USA. 2007.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 4

 I’m in
Schuman:  my attic, where my office is – away from the rest Schuman: Could you explain what got you into that particular
of the house and the family. Where are you? headspace around the time of Broken Manual, in which
you felt like you had to find a “cave”?
Soth: I’m just in my studio. Strangely, this particular room
directly relates to Broken Manual. I originally had only Soth: Like I said, I’m in a very different headspace now.
one space as my studio, but then this space became But at that time, I’d just done NIAGARA, and I felt
available. There used to be a florist in here – when like I was finally “established” or whatever. And for
she left, I was afraid that some auto-mechanic or some reason, when I crossed that threshold, I became
something would move in, and actually the controls frustrated with the medium of photography – I didn’t
for heating and ventilation system in this room are in want to repeat myself, and I didn’t want to give in
my studio, so I decided to get it. This all happened to marketplace pressures. Maybe pretentiously, in
around the same time that I was working on Broken retrospect, I was thinking along the lines of, “I don’t
Manual, so I painted this room grey – the same grey as want to be a photographer; I want to be an artist”.
I paint the gallery-walls when I exhibit Broken Manual It was partly that, and also maybe domestic life
– and in my studio it’s always referred to as “The Cave”. was wrapped into it too – kids reach a certain age,
Today, it’s just the name we use for this room – it everything becomes a little chaotic, and I was a bit
doesn’t really have that same meaning to me anymore – like, “Get me out of here!” I always joke that Broken
but it’s still my place away from the rest of the studio. Manual was my “midlife crisis” project.

Schuman: What do you do in “The Cave”?

“I don’t want to be a
Soth: There’s the library. I also have my treadmill desk in
here at the moment, and all the current “Seesaw” stuff, photographer; I want
just because I don’t know where else to put it. I guess
it’s just a place to think.
to be an artist”
— Alec Soth

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 5

Schuman: In Broken Manual, you – well, “Lester B. Morrison” – Soth: It’s funny, because I created the whole fictional
writes quite a bit about mid-life crises. structure, the “manual” format, “Lester B. Morrison”,
and so on in order to place the project within this other
Soth: Yeah, it was that time in my life. It’s funny – now I’m realm; it’s not meant to be a documentary project about
sort of embarrassed about it. I look back and see a people that are running away. I was photographing
white guy whining about his art-world success. Given people who were semi-recluses, but that said, they’re
the current moment, it’s kind of like, “Maybe that’s not not real recluses – they were more apart from society
so cool.” than other people, but they still functioned in society.
For example, some of the monasteries I visited actually
Schuman: A lot of the project is about the contrast between the had visitor centers. When I went to Gethsemani
romantic or idealistic dream of escaping, and the rather Monastery in Kentucky, where Thomas Merton has
sad and potentially pitiful nature of that kind of reality. been a monk, I was really surprised to find that one
of the monks was a keen photographer. He was so
Soth: That’s true; it’s self-mocking in a way. In the excited when he saw me with my camera, and offered
photographs, I don’t think I’m mocking the people that to show me the cabin where Thomas Merton used to
I encountered, but in the texts I’m definitely mocking meditate. It seemed so contrary to the idea of retreat
myself. The inspiration for the “manual” aspect of the and meditation.
project came from buying all these “How to Disappear”
books online – they’re so absurd. They’re such Schuman: Who is “Lester B. Morrison” to you now, in retrospect?
ridiculous little pamphlets, which would be completely
ineffective if you really wanted to run away. So there is Soth: Now, he is a fully fictional character. Originally, I
a real dark-comedy aspect to the work. was really set on the idea of doing the whole of Broken
Manual under a pseudonym, but then I lost control of
Schuman: How did you go about gaining access to all of these it. In a sense, I was promoting myself through a fake
people who wanted to completely disappear – what identity, but at the same time I was angry at myself
happens when you turn up at their hideout or property for being so self-promotional. I wanted to obliterate
with a camera? myself, but I also want to publicise my obliteration.
Lester B. Morrison is really wrapped up in that.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 6

2008_02zl0189.
USA. 2008.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 7

 The name came about around the same time that Schuman: In your interviews and the conversations with “Lester”,
I started Little Brown Mushroom too. I was trying published in Broken Manual, he really lays into you –
to develop this secret, private language – the way frequently berating and criticising you.
people who’d spent too much time with themselves
do, or people who exist in very tight communities, like Soth: Well honestly, that “midlife crisis” thing I mentioned
gamers or whatever; a coded language. Somewhere earlier wasn’t such a joke – I really was having a midlife
I’d stumbled across that term “little brown mushroom”, crisis. I would actually come to this room – “The
which mushroom-hunters use to describe an Cave” – get really drunk, and work on these things.
unidentifiable mushroom that is very common. I really I’d write, and do drawings, and so on. But a lot of that
liked that, so I came up with the pseudonym “LBM”. stuff is a blur to me, and it’s kind of embarrassing now.
Then “Lester B. Morrison” came out of the idea of Part of the idea was that it was intended to not be very
“less is more”, “less be more”, and he just became good; I wasn’t aiming to write a piece of literature. It
this character. Originally, I was going to do all of the was meant to be kind of shitty – that’s also the way the
Broken Manual work in his name, but then it became book functions in terms of being printed on 8.5×11-
impossible, so he turned into someone that I’d met inch standard office paper. So getting drunk, holing up
whilst travelling and photographing these other people. in “The Cave”, and working on this thing was also, in
He took on another life. some ways, in the spirit of the project. But I don’t even
remember a lot of it – not so long ago, I looked back at
the book, and I was like, “Wow, I did an interview with
myself?!”
“I was trying to develop this
secret, private language – the Schuman: In that interview, “Lester” makes fun of you for
way people who’d spent too wanting to be “recognised and celebrated”, whereas he
just wants to “invisible and alone”. I guess that’s what
much time with themselves do.” was going on in your head as well – you were having
— Alec Soth this kind of battle with yourself, in your own mind.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 8

Roman, the nocturnal USA. 2007.
hermit. USA. 2006

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 9

The Arkansas
Cajun’s Backup
Bunker. USA. 2007

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 10

Soth: Yes, I always have that battle going on – I think about his face out. It was such an aggressive gesture. I asked
this a lot. Even yesterday, I posted a picture of my her if I could keep the photograph, and she said,
eyeballs on Instagram, but I’ve always had this thing “Sure”, and handed it to me. And of course, wrapped
about not showing my eyes on Instagram. Ever since into Broken Manual was the theme of domestic removal
the beginning of Instagram, I’ve badly wanted to and men leaving their family behind, and for me
photograph myself like everyone does and show selfies; that picture was super-charged with the experience of
I want people to like me. But I’m disgusted by that watching her scratch out that man’s face.
urge, so I always want to scratch out the eyes – but I
still want you to like me. It’s this constant back and Schuman: Broken Manual is also partly about the dangers of
forth, wrestling with the desire to be liked, and my spending too much time alone. But in many ways
frustration with that desire. being alone – on the road, in hotel rooms, on planes
and so on – is the nature of your life as a photographer.

“There is a real dark-comedy Soth: Absolutely. The reason I wanted to become a

aspect to the work.” photographer was to spend time alone. It’s funny,
— Alec Soth because for the last year and a half I’ve been trying
to learn how to work alone again. The psychological
elements of working alone are so profound.
Schuman: Included in the ephemera that comes with Broken
Manual, there’s a print where you’ve digitally
obliterated your face – there’s also a found family
photo, where the face of the husband/father is violently “A lot of the project is about the
scratched out. contrast between the romantic
Soth: Actually, that family photo has an interesting
or idealistic dream of escaping”
backstory. When I was photographing NIAGARA, I — Aaron Schuman

met a woman, and she showed me this picture with her

husband. Then – right in front of me – she scratched

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 11

Schuman: What are the benefits of being alone? a boomtown, so everything is bigger than it should be.
There’s this giant hotel with however many stories, but
Soth: For me, being alone is really connected to travel. The today they only keep the first two stories open, so the
benefits are that there’s no escape – you have to work, room where Frank stayed is now closed; you have to ask
because what else are you going to do; how are you to go up there, and I’m not even sure I was in the exact
going to justify this behavior. I think the little tinge same room as where Robert Frank was. I’m not uptight
of madness that comes from spending too much time about that stuff. But what I love about his photograph
alone can be a good thing – you can access something in The Americans is that it’s as much about Frank as it is
real. But there many dangers as well, like being super- about Butte. It’s looking outside and inside at the same
navel-gazing or pretentious. time; it’s using the outside world to speak about an
internal experience – it’s autobiographical in nature.
Schuman: I wanted to ask you about a few specific pictures in
the book, Firstly, there’s a photograph called “Frank’s In terms of the American road-trip photography
View”, which directly references and recreates a Robert tradition, I originally fell in love with Joel Sternfeld
Frank photo that he made in a hotel room in Butte, and Stephen Shore’s work, but not so much with
Montana, which was first published in The Americans. Robert Frank’s. But later on, what I realised is that
How does this particular photograph fit into the I’m actually much closer to Frank in spirit than I am
scheme of Broken Manual? with Sternfeld or Shore. Sternfeld is very sociological.
Shore is very observational and all about seeing. But
Soth: The book includes quite a few inside jokes with myself. Frank can be super navel-gazing. I always think about
By calling it “Frank’s View”, it makes “Frank” sounds Frank – transitioning from The Americans to his Nova
like the first name of a person to me – maybe people Scotia work, and how it reflects his frustration with his
get it, or maybe not. But in terms of the scheme of success. Going to Nova Scotia was sort of his retreat,
Broken Manual, I thought about Robert Frank being and the work he made there was sometimes amazingly
alone, travelling, making pictures. So just out of great, and sometimes was incredibly self-indulgent.
curiosity, I went to Butte, which is the most amazing I feel like I’ve been walking that same line. I’ve always
town; Wim Wenders has photographed there a lot – said to the people who work in my studio, “If I ever
it’s like candy for a photographer, because it once was start painting on my pictures, hit me with a two-by-

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 12

2008_08zl0107. 2008_08zl0238.
USA. 2008. USA. 2008.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 13

 four.” But suddenly, with Broken Manual, I was kind idea of breaking away from it all. For instance,
of doing just that. all of the blurry, far away pictures were made on an
8×10, with very expensive color film. Why would I
Schuman: Are there any pictures in Broken Manual that were do that, knowing that I would eventually scan the
truly “fictional”, in terms of being entirely constructed negative, make it black-and-white, and only blow up
or staged? a little detail? I could have just taken a snapshot with
a point-and-shoot, but somehow it felt important to
Soth: That’s a good question, but weirdly, no – that said, me to still use large-format at the time, even with these
there are more inside-joke pictures. There’s a picture of little pictures.
a boat, which is the first picture I ever made with an
8×10. And there’s a picture of Charles – the guy who’s
holding the airplanes in my most famous photograph “I play these little games with
from Sleeping by the Mississippi; in Broken Manual he’s myself throughout the book.”
one of the zoomed-in blurry ones. I play these little
— Alec Soth
games with myself throughout the book.

Schuman: It also seems like Broken Manual represented an Schuman: At one point in the texts, “Lester B. Morrison”
opportunity for you to break away from your past, mentions J.D. Salinger in the context of famous
and the way you traditionally made photographs. Of recluses. I know that you have a habit of tracking
course, it still contains many large-format portraits down and trying to photograph some of your heroes
and landscapes, but then there are also all of the blurry – for example William Eggleston, who appears in
images, the studio still-lifes, the texts, the drawings, Sleeping by the Mississippi. Did you ever try to find and
and so on. In a sense, you were pushing past your self- photograph J.D. Salinger?
imposed boundaries, and trying to find something
beyond what you were known for. Soth: No, not Salinger, but I did track down the writer
and poet, Wendell Berry, while I was making Broken
Soth: That’s true, but I think that by continuing to use the Manual, which led one of my most humiliating
8×10 it shows that I was also still struggling with the moments ever. I don’t know if you know Wendell

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 14

 Berry, but he’s kind of the Robert Adams of writers his little cabin really is a legit escape for him from
– he’s very pure. So when I was travelling through all of those people. I’m not one of his “disciples” or
Kentucky, I ended up talking to these local farmers anything, like I would be with Robert Adams. I would
in a diner, and found out where Berry lived. I went to never in a million years go to up to Astoria, Oregon
his house, but down by a nearby river there was this and stalk Adams. I did it with Eggleston a long time
tiny cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney. ago, but I was more stupid then, and the circumstances
I wondered if it was connected to him as well, so I went were very different.
up and knocked on the door. He opened the door,
and was so pissed off – I mean really, really, really Schuman: [In2017] You released a new edition of Sleeping by the
angry. I drove away and parked by the side of the Mississippi – are there any plans to do the same with
road, thinking about it, because I was embarrassed. Broken Manual?
And then a few minutes later, he and someone else
drove by and saw me parked there – I guess I was still Soth: There’s no plan. I kind of like that there are only a
on their property – and they started yelling at me, “Get few copies them out there – the book, and its relative
out of here!” It was a horrible feeling. scarcity, have now become a part of the project.

Schuman: That was probably his little writing retreat – his “cave”. Schuman: You said that when you look back at Broken Manual
now, you’re a little bit embarrassed?
Soth: It totally was! And I really wanted to photograph it.
But of course I didn’t. Exactly – it was his cave. Soth: Yes, a little bit. I mean, I like it – but yes, it’s a little
embarrassing.
Schuman: That’s the kind of reaction I would have imagined
you would have gotten from nearly every one of your Schuman: What role does it play in your work and in your
subjects in Broken Manual. thinking today? Did it act as a kind of exorcism,
whereby you needed to get all of this out of your
Soth: It’s true, but most people are actually very welcoming. system, and then you could be free to go back to
But they’re not famous people. Wendell Berry working like you used to; or did it genuinely change
genuinely has a huge following, and I imagine that you in a profound way?

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 15

Soth: I often think about my work as sitting on this spectrum abandoned farmhouse about an hour and twenty
between inward-looking and outward-looking. I minutes away from my studio. Originally, it was a big
see Broken Manual – and that way of working – as secret – I didn’t tell anyone, and no one had been there;
sitting near one end of that spectrum. But I’ve gone my wife hadn’t been there, the people who work in my
much farther than Broken Manual on the inward-side studio hadn’t been there – and I was making work out
of that spectrum; I’ve gone way too far before. And there by myself.
then, I’ve also gone the other way. For me, it’s always
about going back and forth between these two ends,
because I crave change and need to recalibrate myself “I often think about my work
sometimes. That’s why I’m not dismissive of Broken as sitting on this spectrum
Manual; I do like it, and I think it has a place. Just this
morning, I saw a post online in which Wes Anderson between inward-looking and
was talking about how he always had his own stylistic outward-looking.”
approach, which he called his “handwriting”; at a — Alec Soth
certain point, he just accepted his “handwriting”. I feel
like this narcissistic side of things is at least a part of
my “handwriting”, and I have to accept that a certain Schuman: Did anyone know that it existed? You must have at least
amount of it is going to be in my work. Sometimes told your wife about it.
I’m embarrassed by it, or I want to be more of a “pure”
photographer or something, but maybe I just have to Soth: She knew that it existed, but I didn’t want to share it
acknowledge and accept it. I’m always wavering back – it was clearly functioning in that ”cave” sort of way.
and forth between these two poles. And I’m sure that, as a consequence, the work that I
made out there was really, really bad.
Schuman: Do you imagine that you’ll ever veer so close the
inward-looking side of that “spectrum” again in the Schuman: Can you talk me through one example?
future?
Soth: Oh, God. Alright – let’s just say that smoke machines
Soth: You know it’s funny – after Songbook, I bought this were involved.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 16

Frank’s View.
USA. 2008

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 17

Schuman: That’s enough. That’s all I need to know. “Broken Manual is also partly
Soth: Also, the house kept getting broken into – all the about the dangers of spending
smoke machines got stolen, for example, as well as too much time alone”
my metal detector and other things. These break-ins — Alec Soth
really bothered me, because I had a lot of crazy shit in
there as well, so it made me feel very vulnerable. So
Schuman: So it’s only for you?
eventually, I stopped making that work, and then I had
my big spiritual encounter and decided to start.
Soth: I think so, or at least the audience that would get it and
Schuman: Wait, what was the big spiritual encounter? enjoy it would be incredibly minuscule. I don’t really
want to ask a gallery to show work that I know only a
Soth: I mean I had, you know, a “spiritual awakening”, as few people would be interested in, or subject myself to
you might call it. I was in Helsinki, I was doing a not having an audience. I’ve always believed in using
lot of meditating, and I just had this “Oh my god, art for communication’s sake, and in the case of the
everything is connected” kind of experience. So that farmhouse work, I was using it more to communicate
happened, and I decided to change things about my life with myself and experiment with my own practice. It
– now I’m vegetarian, I stopped drinking, and really is what it is, and now I’ve moved on from that.
I was planning on quitting that farmhouse work for
Schuman: Isit very important to you that you have a substantial
sure. But then I decided that maybe I could go back
to the farmhouse without all this fear, invite people to audience, and that they “get” your work?
come with me, and just have experiences together. So
Soth: When I’m making work, I always think about an
I did that for a year, and was very happy – just making
sculptures, videos, audio recordings, and that sort of audience – which isn’t saying I don’t want to challenge
stuff. But now I’ve left that work behind, which is a them, but I also want to let them in. This is something
more complicated story. I mean, I really like the work I think about a lot. I don’t want to be totally blank or
that I made, but I don’t think that it’s for other people. ambiguous.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 18

Schuman: Do you find that Broken Manual has a particularly Broken Manual!” – both NIAGARA and Sleeping by the
specific or slightly more limited audience, as opposed to Mississippi get more affection in that respect. I’ve also
Sleeping by the Mississippi, Songbook or whatever? been challenged, with people saying, “Don’t you think
women have this feeling too, of wanting to disappear?”
Soth: Oh yes. Once, there was even a guy who had a Broken And I say, “Absolutely, I totally get that.” But really,
Manual tattoo. I can totally see how it might speak to the book is a fictional account, it’s about myself in some
a certain kind of angsty person, and funnily it seems ways, and is about that specific culture or tradition
speak to younger people in particular, for whatever of the American white guy wanting to get away from
reason. it all. In America, there’s this kind of obsession with
the black-hatted cowboy – the misfit, the recluse, the
outlaw. We’re having pipe-bombings in Austin right
“In America, there’s this kind of now, and it’s like you can almost play the movie in
obsession with the black-hatted your mind of who the bomber is. I was driving my
cowboy – the misfit, the recluse, daughter to school today, and we were listening to
the news about these pipe-bombings. She’s always had
the outlaw.” this interest in FBI profilers and that kind of stuff,
— Alec Soth so I starting making up my own profile of him –
“White, male, thirty to forty, dark hair”.” She said,
Schuman: Throughout Broken Manual, you make it very clear “Why dark hair?” And I was like, “I don’t know – it’s
that, in a dark-humor or tongue-in-cheek way, the just a feeling.”
book – or at least the premise of the book as a “manual
for disappearing” – is targeted specifically at men
(presumably middle-aged white men). What kinds of
responses have you had from members of your audience
who are women?

Soth: Yeah, sometimes women have responded negatively

to it. I’ve never had a woman say to me, “I really love

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 19

S. Alabama.
USA. 2007.

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling – Key Projects: Broken Manual 20

This Workbook is for the sole use of individuals
or organisations who have purchased Alec Soth:
Photographic Storytelling. No part of this document
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form,
by any means, electronic or mechanical, to any
third-parties, and use is subject to the Terms and
Conditions agreed upon purchase.