{"id":80127,"date":"2014-11-26T14:29:14","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T19:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=80127"},"modified":"2014-11-26T14:31:14","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T19:31:14","slug":"alec-soths-niagara-annotated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/26\/alec-soths-niagara-annotated\/","title":{"rendered":"Alec Soth\u2019s Niagara<\/em>, Annotated"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photograph<\/a>

\u201cWhy do the falls simultaneously attract lovers and suicidals?\u201d (Click to enlarge.)<\/p><\/div>\n

As we mentioned on Monday<\/a>, next week PEN American Center presents \u201cFirst Editions, Second Thoughts<\/a>,\u201d an auction of seventy-five annotated first editions at Christie\u2019s New York, including work by Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and Jane Smiley, among others. The proceeds will benefit PEN, a writers\u2019 association dedicated to protecting free expression.<\/p>\n

PEN shared with us a few of the annotated pages from the photographer Alec Soth\u2019s second monograph, Niagara<\/em><\/a> (2006), which features pictures of the falls and the people who visit them: newlyweds and lovers in a milieu of motels, parking lots, and pawnshops, the unlikely venues for human desire. The prolific Soth has appeared on the Daily<\/em><\/a> in many forms<\/a> over the years<\/a>; there are few photographers whose work is so consistently compelling, so intimate. (Art in America<\/em> has a smarter take<\/a>: \u201cPerhaps more than any other contemporary photographer, Soth understands the tension between art and document inherent in the photographic medium. Situating his work between these two tendencies, he has created surprisingly personal metaphors for the collective hopes and anxieties governing post-9\/11 America.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The annotated edition of Niagara<\/em> finds Soth captioning his photos with canny asides, some contemplative and some rueful. (\u201cI should\u2019ve photographed her alone,\u201d he writes below a picture of a newlywed couple at a motel.) He\u2019s also supplied\u2014and glued onto the book\u2019s blank pages\u2014several unseen photos from the same sessions, usually with notes as to why they were left out of the monograph; it adds up to an engaging look at his composition and selection process. Here are a few more photos of the edition: <\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

\u201cChantelle had a giant portrait of herself over her bed.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

\u201cMy primary interest when photographing couples is to see how they hold each other.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

\u201cRainy wedding day. I should\u2019ve photographed her alone.\u201c<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we mentioned on Monday, next week PEN American Center presents \u201cFirst Editions, Second Thoughts,\u201d an auction of seventy-five annotated first editions at Christie\u2019s New York, including work by Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and Jane Smiley, among others. The proceeds will benefit PEN, a writers\u2019 association dedicated to protecting free expression. PEN shared with us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[10760,616,16168,16200,16199,4328,100],"class_list":["post-80127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-alec-soth","tag-couples","tag-first-editions-second-thoughts","tag-newlyweds","tag-niagara-falls","tag-pen","tag-photography"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlec Soth\u2019s Niagara, Annotated<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A selection of annotated pages from the photograph\u2019s second monograph, featured in PEN\u2019s \u201cFirst Editions, Second Thoughts\u201d series.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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