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Sleeping by the Mississippi
from: Steidl
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 770
EAN: 9783865217530
ISBN: 3865217532
Label: Steidl
Manufacturer: Steidl
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 120
Publication Date: June 01, 2008
Publisher: Steidl
Release Date: June 01, 2008
Studio: Steidl
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
It's hard to believe that the first edition of Alec Soth's Sleeping by the Mississippi appeared only in 2004, so swiftly has the book become a classic of our time. Evolving from a series of road trips along the Mississippi River, Sleeping by the Mississippi captures America's iconic yet oft-neglected 'third coast.' Soth's richly descriptive, large format color photographs describe an eclectic mix of individuals, landscapes and interiors. Sensuous in detail and raw in subject, his book elicits a consistent mood of loneliness, longing and reverie. 'In the book's 46 ruthlessly edited pictures,' writes Anne Wilkes Tucker, 'Soth alludes to illness, procreation, race, crime, learning, art, music, death, religion, redemption, politics, and cheap sex... The coherence of the project places Soth's book exactly within the tradition of Walker Evans' American Photographs and Robert Frank's The Americans.' Like Frank's classic book, Sleeping by the Mississippi merges a documentary style with a poetic sensibility. The Mississippi River is less the subject of the book than its organizing structure. Not bound by a rigid concept or ideology, the series is created from a quintessentially American spirit of wanderlust. Featuring a new linen-bound cover with a tipped-on image, this is the third print run of a volume which has become one of the most widely collected and highly acclaimed photo books of recent times.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A must-have in your photography book collection
I'm glad to finally own an Alec Soth book. I can study these photographs many times and never get bored of them. All I can say is that I wish I could shoot as well as he does.
Rating:  - worthy subject
The Mississippi is as american as it gets, and has never been explored photographically in quite this intimate a way. The book is good, but not as good as some other books out there in this genre of large format color american road pictures. Seek deeper.
Rating: - Maybe not a CLASSIC, but close
While this MAY not stand up to JOEL STERNFELD, STEPHEN SHORE, RICHARD MISRACH, ETC. (the people SOTH has been compared to by OTHERS) it is about as good as anything contemporary that's going around. 8x10 COLOR may not be unique at this point, but soth's work is a nice addition to the genre.
Rating: - not bad, but let's dial back the hype
this work is solid, beautiful, and thoughtful, but if you are interested in this kind of work you should first get Eggleston's Guide, Stephen Shore's "Uncommon Places," and especially Joel Sternfeld's "American Prospects" which this book seems to pick up from. but in all honesty, those books are not only better, groundbreaking (this is not groundbreaking work), and significant in an art/photo history context, they did so 30 years ago at a time when color photography was still seen as nothing to be taken seriously.
so, buy this book, but only after the others. this is 'friends', go buy seinfeld first.
Rating: - Spectacular!!!!
Alec Soth builds on the tradition established by William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld. But Soth dramatically moves beyond these masters by presenting a more eccentric cast of characters, a stronger thematic melody and a more personal insight.
Soth's photographic journey down the Mississippi evokes a boyish sense of adventure. Dreams, flight, religion, race, sex and unusual personalities appear repeatedly in the work, often in subtle allusion. The young photographer captures a rainbow of quirky characters defining a life filled with rich personal meaning outside the mainstream of cultural or artistic norms, locations, institutions and without significant financial expense.
The book's forty-six pictures reflect a richness of detail possible with Soth's 8 x 10 inch camera. Each page offers a title on the left and the work on the right. Photographers Notes at the end of the book hint at the depth within Soth's work. Essays by Patricia Hampl and Anne Wilkes Tucker complete this wonderful Steidl publication.
The Whitney Bienniel 2004 prominently featured Soth's work, which has been acclaimed by the critics and will be embraced by the broader public as this young photographer becomes better known. A spectacular body of work, Sleeping by the Mississippi places Soth squarely at the front of young American photographers continuing to move art forward.
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