Alec Soth

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Alec Soth. "NIAGARA" will be the first exhibition of Alec Soth's latest body of work, following his acclaimed series Sleeping by the Mississippi. Soth's photography is firmly rooted in the tradition of Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and Stephen Shore. His depiction of the everyday confronts the ideals romanticized by American society; independence, freedom, religious devotion and individual expression. Through his 8 x 10 camera lens, Soth captures the extraordinary by exposing and utilizing the vernacular of the ordinary.

"NIAGARA" both reinforces and undermines modern myths, focusing on true love, sexuality and the promise of "happily ever after." Throughout "NIAGARA" Soth emphasizes various motifs associated with romance, ranging from newlywed bliss to heart-broken agony, the innocent and sacred to the perverse. His subjects include coupled nudes, individual and familial portraits, hand-written letters, motels and other staples of love and love lost in all its manifestations.

Steidl Press will publish "NIAGARA," a book of this series including essays by Richard Ford and Philip Brookman, in March 2006. It will be Steidl's second publication of Soth's photography, following "Sleeping by the Mississippi" in 2004. Selected works from "NIAGARA" will also be included in a group exhibition entitled Click Double Click at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, opening in February 2006.

Alec Soth is currently short-listed for the highly prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Pressetext

Alec Soth: NIAGARA