Falls 26, 2005

Alec Soth burst onto the contemporary art scene in 2004 with the critically acclaimed book and project, Sleeping by the Mississippi, and as the poster-artist for that year's Whitney Biennial. NIAGARA was the hard-hitting follow-up, a body of work that is neither straight documentary nor completely fiction. As Philip Brookman writes, 'Soth’s NIAGARA feels like soaring over the falls in a barrel. Once airborne, our senses are given over to other forces. The journey starts out like a love story about youth, hope and adventure … But it quickly tumbles out of control as nature takes over, breaking into fragments of crushed spirit, raw emotion, and remorse.'