0:00:01.037,0:00:04.682
Alec Soth: So about 10 years ago,[br]I got a call from a woman in Texas,

0:00:04.682,0:00:06.354
Stacey Baker,

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and she'd seen some of my photographs[br]in an art exhibition

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and was wondering if she could commission[br]me to take a portrait of her parents.

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Now, at the time I hadn't met Stacey,[br]and I thought this was some sort of

0:00:19.335,0:00:23.367
wealthy oil tycoon and I'd struck it rich,

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but it was only later that I found out

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she'd actually taken out a loan[br]to make this happen.

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I took the picture of her parents,

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but I was actually more excited[br]about photographing Stacey.

0:00:35.074,0:00:36.832
The picture I made that day

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ended up becoming[br]one of my best-known portraits.

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At the time I made this picture,[br]Stacey was working as an attorney

0:00:45.031,0:00:46.686
for the State of Texas.

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Not long after, she left her job[br]to study photography in Maine,

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and while she was there,[br]she ended up meeting

0:00:53.651,0:00:56.786
the director of photography[br]at the New York Times Magazine

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and was actually offered a job.

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Stacey Baker: In the years since,[br]Alec and I have done

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a number of magazine projects together,

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and we've become friends.

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A few months ago, I started talking[br]to Alec about a fascination of mine.

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I've always been obsessed[br]with how couples meet.

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I asked Alec how he[br]and his wife Rachel met,

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and he told me the story[br]of a high school football game

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where she was 16 and he was 15,

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and he asked her out.

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He liked her purple hair.

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She said yes, and that was it.

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I then asked Alec if he'd be interested[br]in doing a photography project

0:01:35.469,0:01:37.280
exploring this question.

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AS: And I was interested in the question,[br]but I was actually much more interested

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in Stacey's motivation for asking it,

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particularly since I'd never known[br]Stacey to have a boyfriend.

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So as part of this project,[br]I thought it'd be interesting

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if she tried to meet someone.

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So my idea was to have Stacey here[br]go speed dating

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in Las Vegas on Valentine's Day.

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(Laughter) (Applause) (Music)

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SB: We ended up at what was advertised[br]as the world's largest speed dating event.

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I had 19 dates

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and each date lasted three minutes.

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Participants were given a list of ice-[br]breaker questions to get the ball rolling,

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things like, "If you could be any kind[br]of animal, what would you be?"

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That sort of thing.

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My first date was Colin.

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He's from England,

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and he once married a woman he met[br]after placing an ad for a Capricorn.

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Alec and I saw him[br]at the end of the evening,

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and he said he'd kissed a woman in line[br]at one of the concession stands.

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Zack and Chris came[br]to the date-a-thon together.

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This is Carl.

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I asked Carl, "What's the first thing[br]you notice about a woman?"

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He said, "Tits."

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(Laughter)

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Matthew is attracted to women[br]with muscular calves.

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We talked about running. He does[br]triathlons, I run half-marathons.

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Alec actually liked his eyes and asked[br]if I was attracted to him, but I wasn't,

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and I don't think he was[br]attracted to me either.

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Austin and Mike came together.

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Mike asked me a hypothetical question.

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He said, "You're in an elevator[br]running late for a meeting.

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Someone makes a dash for the elevator.

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Do you hold it open for them?"

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And I said I would not.

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(Laughter)

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Cliff said the first thing he notices[br]about a woman is her teeth,

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and we complimented each other's teeth.

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Because he's an open mouth sleeper,

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he says he has to floss more[br]to help prevent gum disease,

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and so I asked him how often he flosses,

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and he said, "Every other day."

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(Laughter)

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Now, as someone who flosses twice a day,

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I wasn't really sure that[br]that was flossing more

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but I don't think I said that out loud.

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Bill is an auditor,

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and we talked the entire three minutes[br]about auditing. (Laughter)

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The first thing Spencer notices[br]about a woman is her complexion.

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He feels a lot of women[br]wear too much makeup,

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and that they should only wear enough[br]to accentuate the features that they have.

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I told him I didn't wear any makeup at all

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and he seemed to think[br]that that was a good thing.

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Craig told me he didn't think[br]I was willing to be vulnerable.

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He was also frustrated when I couldn't[br]remember my most embarrassing moment.

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He thought I was lying, but I wasn't.

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I didn't think he liked me at all,[br]but at the end of the night,

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he came back to me and he gave me[br]a box of chocolates.

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William was really difficult to talk to.

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I think he was drunk.

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(Laughter)

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Actor Chris McKenna[br]was the MC of the event.

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He used to be on[br]"The Young and the Restless."

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I didn't actually go on a date with him.

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Alec said he saw several women[br]give their phone numbers to him.

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Needless to say, I didn't fall in love.

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I didn't feel a particular connection with[br]any of the men that I went on dates with,

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and I didn't feel like they felt[br]a particular connection with me either.

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AS: Now, the most beautiful thing to me --

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(Laughter) -- as a photographer[br]is the quality of vulnerability.

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The physical exterior reveals a crack[br]in which you can get a glimpse

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at a more fragile interior.

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At this date-a-thon event,[br]I saw so many examples of that,

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but as I watched Stacey's dates[br]and talked to her about them,

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I realized how different[br]photographic love is from real love.

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What is real love? How does it work?

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In order to work on this question[br]and to figure out how someone goes

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from meeting on a date[br]to having a life together,

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Stacey and I went to Sun City Summerlin,

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which is the largest[br]retirement community in Las Vegas.

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Our contact there was George,[br]who runs the community's photography club.

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He arranged for us to meet other couples[br]in their makeshift photo studio.

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SB: After 45 years of marriage,[br]Anastasia's husband died two years ago,

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so we asked if she had[br]an old wedding picture.

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She met her husband[br]when she was a 15-year-old waitress

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at a small barbecue place in Michigan.

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He was 30.

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She'd lied about her age.

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He was the first person she'd dated.

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Dean had been named photographer of[br]the year in Las Vegas two years in a row,

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and this caught Alec's attention,

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as did the fact [br]that he met his wife, Judy,

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at the same age when Alec met Rachel.

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Dean admitted that he likes[br]to look at beautiful women,

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but he's never questioned[br]his decision to marry Judy.

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AS: George met Josephine[br]at a parish dance.

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He was 18, she was 15.

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Like a lot of the couples we met,[br]they weren't especially philosophical

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about their early choices.

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George said something[br]that really stuck with me.

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He said, "When you get that feeling,[br]you just go with it."

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Bob and Trudy met on a blind date[br]when she was still in high school.

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They said they weren't particularly[br]attracted to each other

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when the first met.

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Nevertheless, they were[br]married soon after.

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SB: The story that stayed with me the most

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was that of George, the photography club[br]president, and his wife, Mary.

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This was George and Mary's[br]second marriage.

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They met at a country-western club[br]in Louisville, Kentucky called the Sahara.

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He was there alone drinking[br]and she was with friends.

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When they started dating,[br]he owed the IRS 9,000 dollars in taxes,

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and she offered to help him[br]get out of debt,

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so for the next year, he turned[br]his paychecks over to Mary,

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and she got him out of debt.

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George was actually an alcoholic[br]when they married, and Mary knew it.

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At some point in their marriage,[br]he says he consumed

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54 beers in one day.

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Another time, when he was drunk,[br]he threatened to kill Mary

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and her two kids,

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but they escaped and a SWAT team[br]was called to the house.

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Amazingly, Mary took him back,

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and eventually things got better.

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George has been involved[br]in Alcoholics Anonymous

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and hasn't had a drink in 36 years.

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(Music)

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At the end of the day,[br]after we left Sun City,

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I told Alec that I didn't actually think

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that the stories of how these couples met[br]were all that interesting.

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What was more interesting

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was how they managed to stay together.

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AS: They all had this beautiful[br]quality of endurance,

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but that was true of the singles, too.

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The world is hard,[br]and the singles were out there

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trying to connect with other people,

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and the couples[br]were holding onto each other

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after all these decades.

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My favorite pictures on this trip[br]were of Joe and Roseanne.

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Now, by the time we met Joe and Roseanne,

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we'd gotten in the habit of asking couples[br]if they had an old wedding photograph.

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In their case, they simultaneously[br]pulled out of their wallets

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the exact same photograph.

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What's more beautiful,[br]I thought to myself,

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this image of a young couple[br]who has just fallen in love

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or the idea of these two people[br]holding onto this image for decades?

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Thank you.

0:10:00.122,0:10:05.532
(Applause)