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| Niagara, by Alec Soth |
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Why is it, anyways, that Niagara Falls is honeymoon capital of the world? This seems to be what Alec Soth is asking with Niagara, which weaves a narrative as much as it creates a portrait: a study of relationships against a backdrop of what Philip Brookman refers to in the introduction as “the ultimate lack of control over nature—the inevitability of death and rebirth.” Using an 8x10 large-format camera, Soth paints a sharp allegory of relationships within this idea. Among photographs of the Falls itself are portraits of couples, often in repose, both formal and intimate, alternate with young people dressed for their wedding day—spliced with images of the seedy and gaudy exteriors of a motel, a half-filled tumbler of bourbon, wedding rings for sale in a pawnshop. Woven into the narrative are photographs of photographs of pages of letters from one lover to the other, snapshots of joy, jealousy, hate, or loneliness. Instead of connubial bliss, Niagara presents a B Noir, destined to end in tragedy, possibly death, which may explain why Alec Soth prefaces the work with a quote from Nabakov's Lolita: “…But it was all of no avail. Both doomed were we.”
(Niagara, Alec Soth, Steidl Publishing, $60)
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