In the mid 1980s photographer and writer Scot Sothern embedded himself in the dark inner-city hallows of Los Angeles and for five years made photographs of the prostitutes working and living on the streets. In 1990, Sothern printed a single edition of 35 photographs on Kodak Ektalure R paper, which has long since been discontinued. These are the last darkroom images, and the only vintage prints, from this series printed by Sothern. The accompanying stories, penned by Sothern, tell of women, and sometimes men, living a daily existence of drug addiction, indignity, and victimization. STREETWALKERS is a bleak, yet at times uplifting and even humorous, examination of street prostitution in contemporary America by an artist whose own illicit compulsions and literary muscle inform every story and photograph.
Scot Sothern has taken his camera into a world that only a microscopic fraction of the human population knows exists. Sothern is not a mere voyeur, he wades deeply into zones most never will and renders his subjects with dignity and compassion. Lowlife is a moving and compelling piece of work. –Henry Rollins
His first book, LOWLIFE, was published in the U.K. by Stanley Barker in 2011. Sothern has since had solo shows on both coasts of the U.S. as well as in Ottawa, Paris, Basel, and London. The British Journal of Photography called LOWLIFE, “The year’s most controversial photobook.” From 2013 to 2015, Scot wrote more than fifty photo-illustrated twice-monthly columns, “Nocturnal Submissions” and “Sothern Exposure,” for Vice. In 2013, Curb Service: A Memoir was published by Soft Skull Press, and An American Lowlife, a digital photobook, was published by powerHouse Books. SAD CITY, a limited edition book of photographs and stories was published by Straylight Press in 2015. PowerHouse will publish STREETWALKERS, thirty years of stories and photographs in February of 2016. Scot’s first novel, BigCity, will be published in the spring of 2017 by Stalking Horse Press.
Exhibition Dates February 13 – April 16
Thursday through Saturday
12PM – 6PM
or by appointment Nick@littlebigmangallery.com
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