Product Description

By way of follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut monograph Sleeping by the Mississippi, Alec Soth turns his eye to another iconic body of water, Niagara Falls. And as with his photographs of the Mississippi, these images are less about natural wonder than human desire. "I went to Niagara for the same reason as the honeymooners and suicide jumpers," says Soth, "the relentless thunder of the Falls just calls for big passion." The subject may be hot, but the pictures are quiet, the rigorously composed and richly detailed products of a large-format 8x10 camera. Working over the course of two years on both the American and Canadian sides of the Falls, Soth edited the results of his labors down to a tight and surprising album. He depicts newlyweds and naked lovers, motel parking lots, pawnshop wedding rings and love letters from the subjects he photographed. We read about teenage crushes, workplace affairs, heartbreak and suicide. Oscar Wilde wrote, "The sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life." Niagara brings viewers both the passion and the disappointment--a remarkable portrayal of modern love and its aftermath.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #374789 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

About the Author
Photographer Alec Soth was born in 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he continues to live and work. He is the recipient of major fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, and was awarded the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are represented in major public collections including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Soth's widely acclaimed first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004, followed by Niagara and Dog Days Bogota in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Soth is represented by Gagosian Gallery in New York and Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis. He is an associate photographer with Magnum Photos.

Customer Reviews

Another great book
What makes this book interesting is that it is significantly different than 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'. Another great book by one of the most promising young photographers.

BIG disappointment
The acclaim and good reviews for this book are mistaken - it is average work by an above average artist who his a sophomore slump with this, his second book. Sleeping by the Mississippi, as derivative as it may be, was deeper and more soulful than this work which offers not much new in contemporary photography.

fall in love with photography all over again
Saw the exhibition that accompanied this book . Poignant and funny by turns, it was one of the best recent photography exhibitions i have seen .The inclusion of found love letters and the swans made of towels, stopped the collection from just being a collection of expected shots of odd looking couples. While the majestic shots of the falls themselves somehow became a comment on the frailty of human romance....