Curb Service: A Memoir

Photographer shares his life of photography, physical ailments, a son, and wife. He father was a photographer, he shares his experiences in the underbelly of society and ailments. B/W images. Occasional insight into the human condition. Swearing.

An interesting read if one is interested in street life. I have been researching the changes in public morals - my interest has been primarily in the post Civil War Gold Rush era. I am from Nome Alaska which was a wide open town in the early 1900's with a walled off area of several blocks featuring brothels. Prostitution today is still prevalent, and this book would seem to reveal the seediness of this unfortunate form of entrepreneurship.

Scot Sothern had me duped for decades. Even as the bestfriend and college roommate of his wife, Linda, I was still one of the many people who was told he "only photographs the whores." Nothing else. I have been familiar with the pictures for years, but the stark truth behind the photos, had even me, turning the pages as rapidly as I could, yet not so fast as to miss every perfectly crafted word from Scot's narrative voice. No one has a gift for dialogue like Scot, nor the facility to describe the horrors of being whores in Los Angeles. But now I know that Scot LIVED this life, not just watched it from behind the safety of his camera.

I had caught a couple of Scot Sothern's stories about photographing and interviewing prostitutes on Vice.com. The fast pace glimpses into this segment of society had me wanting more of his stories. Both funny and at the same time sad, these vignettes, along with some of Sothern's back story were written without judgment or glamorizing these women and what they did to survive. Telling it like it is, I think any fan of literature that explores any aspect of our societies underground, will find this enjoyable as well as informative. A realistic look at how some women (and men) survive in this world.

I love Scot Sothern. He has such a raw and real writing style. Great read, though kinda akward to read around your mother.

This quote from Dostoevsky (“The Possessed”) may be a fair summation of Scot Sothern’s book, Curb Service. But first, a disclaimer: I googled his name and found many of his images and they’re incredibly good! I loved the photos I found online. He’s genuinely “an artist” in every sense of the word, with something to say through his pictures. His idea to take photos of prostitutes in Los Angeles is ingenious, and daring. He really captures a gritty side of urban reality, photos that can stand alongside innovative photographers like Winogrand, Maier and Frank, for example. If for no other reason than that, I recommend this book as a gateway to discover his other work, his photographs. (I haven’t read anything else he wrote so I can’t say anything about it.)Unfortunately, there’s a downside to “Curb Service”, at least if you need an excuse for reading. In the first place, it was disappointing there weren’t many photos. They’re small newspaper-quality, which isn’t good; but it’s cheap. The blackout-bars that cover the eyes, I suppose to hide the “real” identities of the girls, seem inexplicable. I saw the same photos online without any problem and without the bars. The bars-across-the-eyes is something I’d expect to find on Facebook which shows plenty of eyes but no tits; Sothern’s book shows no eyes but plenty of tits! Go figure. In the second place, although I liked the writing in spots, it may have been funny but never compelling. Stories about his son, his ex-wife, or anything having to do with children, play dates and families were simply boring to me and I skipped over them; these parts didn’t fit in with the nasty, dark noir of prostitutes and drugs. Finally, in the third place, the book’s individual chapters having good parts mixed in with useless information notwithstanding, I found myself drifting away, checking my phone and email as I tried to read.About halfway through the book I started scanning past his descriptions of office equipment, the conditions of cars that were probably illegal to drive, details about his son, his ex-wife, his medical symptoms, his work history etc. -- work that was barely interesting enough to keep his own attention, how could it be expected to keep MY attention? It didn’t. I jumped ahead to spots about picking up prostitutes and escorts to take their pictures. I figured since there weren’t enough photos in the book to be interesting, maybe the back-stories about the girls would make up for it. Well, not so much.There was one interaction with an office associate at a production company where he worked, “Vicky Chow”. It could’ve provided a meaningful conversation interesting to the reader, but it too was disappointing for its shallowness and lack of illumination into the reasons he started the photog project to begin with. Her sympathetic character asks questions about his intentions and expectations for the work he was doing, but according to his response he hadn’t thought too deeply about it. His replies to Vicky made it seem that working on the project was slightly more time-consuming, and a little less satisfying even, than masturbating in a motel with one of his male subjects.Curb Service is about the things that happened to Scot Sothern: thoughts he had, things he did and didn’t do, his sexual desires, fantasies and the daily minutia of his life that undoubtedly occupied his imagination. It’s apparent to me that, unlike his work in photography - if his own life was hardly enough to be of interest to him, it doesn’t even come close to being of interest to me. Read this book if you have nothing else to do, but be sure to check out his photos.

Chatty but without a compelling story.

This book was dark and weird and kind of messed up and entirely amazing.

Brilliant account of a the nitty gritty s***ty low down life of a true street photographer. Photographing ladies of the night, streetwalkers and trying to incorporate a family lifestyle and hold down a job. A brilliant semi biographical account of such a life. Would definitely recommend.

Really good read. Very unusual and interesting subject matter, written in a very easy to read style. I would happily reccomend this book to others.

Aufgrund eines Berichts in einem Blog mit einem kurzen Ausschnitt habe ich mich entschieden die elektronische Form zu erwerben in Erwartung einer Sozialreportage mit dokumentarischen Fotografien und einem Schreibstil ähnlich Bukowski/Miller, was der Ausschnitt nahe legte. Das Buch im Ganzen war für mich aber enttäuschend. Die Fotos sind grobkörnig und wirken auf mich einfach und lieblos, je Kapitel gibt es eines. Der Inhalt bietet neben den Beschreibungen der Drogenexzesse des Autors wenig Inhalt und literarisch bietet das Buch leider auch wenig.