Three Teens: Alec Soth’s Portrait of Youth in Minneapolis
Soth documents the lives of teenagers who attend a high school near his studio in Minneapolis
This year, through a series of new commissions and publications, Magnum Photos and FUJIFILM explore the theme of “Youth,” and what it means to be young today. Alec Soth spent time with three teenagers, Gus, Toby, and JD, following them beyond the school walls and into their personal lives, exploring ideas around uncertainty, community, experimentation, and play.
Join Soth at Palais Brongniart on Friday, September 4, and Saturday, September 5 for an artist talk and exhibition during FUJIKINA Paris. Book your tickets here.
Alec Soth: A few blocks from my studio is an alternative high school that attracts young artists, dreamers, and outcasts from across St. Paul. In the spring of 2026, I began spending time there, drawn by the intensity and openness of the students. Among them were two close friends, Toby and Gus. After meeting them at school, I asked if I could visit their homes, meet their families, and spend time in the worlds they had built beyond the classroom.
It didn’t take long to understand the importance of Toby’s boyfriend, JD. The two first knew each other as childhood enemies. It’s something of a miracle that they found each other again as teenagers and have now been together for four years.
"The longer I spent with Toby, JD, and Gus, the less interested I became in the usual narratives about young people."
- Alec Soth
I met a variety of people in Gus’s life, but it soon became clear that Gus herself belonged at the center of her story. She is a singular artist and force of nature, someone whose imagination seems to spill into every corner of her life. Being around her, I had the feeling that the boundaries between art and daily existence had not yet hardened.
"What stayed with me was their capacity for friendship, love, invention, and self-definition."
- Alec Soth
I began this work expecting to make photographs about a generation coming of age in a difficult moment. That reality is impossible to ignore. Yet the longer I spent with Toby, JD, and Gus, the less interested I became in the usual narratives about young people. What stayed with me was their capacity for friendship, love, invention, and self-definition.
Much is said about the challenges facing youth today. Spending time with these remarkable teenagers left me wondering whether adults sometimes underestimate not only the difficulties young people face, but also their extraordinary ability to create meaning, intimacy, and beauty within them.
The body of work, made with a FUJIFILM X Series, will be exhibited at Palais Brongniart during FUJIKINA Paris in September, alongside a new series by Alex Webb titled “Las Calles: In the Spirit of Youth,” focusing on the lives of young people in the streets of Oaxaca. Get your tickets here.
For more stories on Generation Z and the lives of Youth today, take a look at Magnum Chronicles: Generation Z, in which 10 Magnum photographers work with individuals around the world to paint a global portrait of the generation.
