Search like a stray dog to photograph her hometown for her adopted daughter

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How to make a deep impression on an unfamiliar place for a short time, grab a camera, and search every place like a stray dog, without sparing any street corners, ruins, telephone poles, trash cans.

Dog Days, Bogotá may be one such "unplanned" project to help Alec Soth quickly build affection for Bogotá (Bogotá, the capital of Colombia and the capital of the province of Kundinamaca), because it is the home of his daughter Carmen. After completing his first book, Sleeping by the Mississippi, Alec Soth and his wife traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, to adopt a baby girl named Carmen.

"My wife and I adopted our baby daughter Carmen Laura in Bogotá, Colombia, and in order to take her home, we stayed in Bogota for two months, waiting for the court to process the paperwork.

Carmen's birth mother made her a handmade book filled with letters, pictures and poems. I hope that the hardships of the world do not hurt your sensitivity, and when I think of you, I hope that your life is full of good things. She wrote.

Using these words as a mission statement, I began to write my own book for Carmen. In photographing the city where she was born, I wish I had described some of the beauty of this tough place. ”

Through crumbling architecture, animal companionship and the resilience of people, these beauty become apparent. But Soth's photographs also go beyond the simple depictions of the good, wandering in the midst of wanderers, tenacious souls, and small hopes.

It may be that the format (6X6 format, Soth's other projects mostly use 4X5 or 8X10 large format) and the mood of the shooting, it feels that the photos of "Dog Days, Bogotá" are more forceful when shooting, and there are many other works that reveal "understatement". It is not so much about photographing the city of Bogotá as it is about enriching and deepening the connection with Carmen through photography.

Carmen is happy, she has two "books", one full of blood-linked maternal love, and the other full of responsibility to do her best.

Bogota, Colombia, 2003