Writer/photographer/artist Scot Sothern grew up in his father’s portrait photography studio in the Missouri Ozarks in the 1950s and 1960s. A product of the sixties cultural revolution he ran wild through the 1970s and supported himself as an itinerant portrait photographer.  In the following years he took jobs here and abroad that kept him behind a camera and in the darkroom. By the 1990s he had become an autodidact writer as well.

In 2010, at sixty, his first solo exhibit, LOWLIFE, photos and stories of life with street prostitutes, was held at the venerable Drkrm Gallery in Los Angeles. Scot’s first book of the same title was published in the U.K. by Stanley Barker in 2011. The British Journal of Photography called LOWLIFE, “The years’ most controversial photobook.” LOWLIFE immediately found its way into the international art photography community. This work along with other photography projects has since been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, and Paris. Solo gallery shows have included Little Big Man Gallery in LA, Dan Cooney Fine Art in NYC and Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami.

In 2013 Scot began two biweekly columns, Nocturnal Submissions, and Sothern Exposure, for VICE Magazine, and CURB SERVICE: A Memoir, was published by Soft Skull Press. Writer Jerry Stahl called it “An absolutely amazing and essential book.” STREETWALKERS, stories and photographs was published by powerHouse Books in February 2016. “This penetrating book of photographs and text will haunt and challenge the viewer.” -Roger Ballen

BIG CITY, a novel, was published in 2017 by Stalking Horse Press. In 2022, FAMILY TREE, Photos and Stories was published by These Days LA. Other books include SAD CITY published by Straylight Press, and A NEW LOW and LITTLE MISS by drkrm Editions.

IDENTITY, Scot Sothern’s current and most original project, explores time and vast change moving back, at times, to the epoch of the American Civil War with comparisons to the current American civil discord. Working with found, antique, glass-plate Ambrotypes and using Photoshop to print and size contemporary images, then physically binding these elements together Scot is creating small art works that are equally digital and analog. Both handmade and technologically advanced.

In the second half of the 19th Century professional photographers were few and far between. Using a wet-collodion process on glass and often guesstimating exposure times resulting in Ambrotypes that can be both stunning and flawed. Comparisons to modern day selfies and the value of a single image are brought to mind. While a selfie is shot and posted on social media, it seldom holds more than a glancing memory or deeper meaning. The Ambrotype portraits were originally greatly valued and personal. Now altered they become objet d’art with meaning spanning generations and addressing the contemporary world.

IDENTITY, the who and what we are, has never been more out of the closet. People young and old are claiming their previously covert sexual personas. We are as well living in a world of technology surpassing the imaginations of only a few years ago. Cutting edge advances both socially and scientifically, are at odds with backward movements attempting to bring back the good old days that in fact never existed. Xenophobia, white supremacy, and gender bashing has elbowed into the forefront. Global Warming is beyond the brink of no return. America has never been as disconnected as in the immediate now. IDENTITY reflects the time and the mores of the contemporary zeitgeist.