Evolving from a series of road trips along the Mississippi River, Sleeping by the Mississippi captures America's iconic, yet largely neglected, "third shoreline" . Descriptive, color, and large-format photographs by Alec Soth present an eclectic mix of individuals, landscapes and interiors. Sensual in detail and raw in theme, Sleeping by the Mississippi elicits a coherent mood of loneliness, longing, and dreaminess. “In the 46 images in the book edited without compassion,” writes Anne Wilkes Tucker in the original essay included in the book, “Soth alludes to disease, procreation, race, crime, learning, art, music, death, religion, redemption, politics and cheap sex. ”
Like Robert Frank's classic The Americans, Sleeping by the Mississippi fuses documentary style with poetic sensibility . The Mississippi is less the subject of the book than its organizing structure. Not tied to a rigid concept or ideology, the series is created from an essentially American spirit of wandering. Thirteen years after the publication of the book, the artist's lyrical vision has undoubtedly acquired a nuanced meaning, in which hope, fear, desire and regret come together in the evocative journey through this mythical river.
Dimensions: 28 x 27.5 cm
Pages: 120
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
