Sleeping by the Mississippi Special Edition
Alec Soth

€1.300,00

Please note: Special Edition - any orders containing this title will be shipped from the UK, and may be subject to additional charges upon delivery.

Limited edition of 150 copies, each comprising a signed copy of the first printing of the MACK edition of the book, housed in a slipcase with a signed and numbered print [signed and numbered in pencil on back, 1/150 - 150/150]

Publication date: September 2017
ISBN: 978-1-910164-89-1SE
€1,300.00 £1,150.00 $1,505.00
*PLEASE NOTE Retail price will increase as the edition sells through.

Sleeping by the Mississippi by Alec Soth is one of the defining publications in the photobook era. First published by Steidl in 2004, it was Soth’s first book, sold through three editions, and established him as one of the leading lights of contemporary photographic practice. This MACK edition launches to coincide with the first exhibition in London dedicated to the series at Beetles+Huxley gallery, and includes two new photographs that were not included in the previous versions of the book.

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 colour photographs present an eclectic mix of individuals, landscapes, and interiors. Sensuous in detail and raw in subject, Sleeping by the Mississippi elicits a consistent mood of loneliness, longing, and reverie. ‘In the book’s 46 ruthlessly edited pictures’, writes Anne Wilkes Tucker in the original essay published in the book, ‘Soth alludes to illness, procreation, race, crime, learning, art, music, death, religion, redemption, politics, and cheap sex.’

Like Robert Frank’s classic The Americans, Sleeping by the Mississippi merges a documentary style with poetic sensibility. The Mississippi is less the subject of the book than its organizing structure. Not bound by a rigid concept or ideology, the series is created out of a quintessentially American spirit of wanderlust. Thirteen years since the book was first published, the artist’s lyrical view has undoubtedly acquired a nuanced significance – one in which hope, fear, desire and regret coalesce in the evocative journey along this mythic river.

Alec Soth (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has published over twenty-five books including Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004), NIAGARA (2006), Broken Manual(2010) and Songbook (2015). Soth has had over fifty solo exhibitions including survey shows organized by Jeu de Paume in Paris (2008), the Walker Art Center in Minnesota (2010), Media Space in London (2015) and FotoMuseum in Antwerp (2017). Soth has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013). In 2008, Soth created Little Brown Mushroom, a multi-media enterprise focused on visual storytelling. Soth is represented by Sean Kelly in New York, Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis, Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, and is a member of Magnum Photos.

Watch Alec Soth's Bookshelf Tour here.


Coinciding events:

Book Launch: Alec Soth in Conversation
Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London
18 September 2017, 7-8pm. 

Sleeping by the Mississippi Exhibition Opening
Beetles+Huxley, London
19 September, 6-8pm
Open 20 September – 21 October 2017

Book Launch & Signing
NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1
Date TBC: 23/24 September 2017

 

In the press

Perlentaucher
Phroom
MW Magazine
The Photobook Review
Playboy Magazine
Paris Review
Glltn
Negative Feedback
BBC
The Herald Magazine
i-D
Sleeping by the Mississippi
Wallpaper*
Aesthetica
British Journal of Photography
Creative Boom
Internazionale
Huck Magazine
L Intervalle
Dazed Digital
LOFFICIEL HOMMES magazine
Guardian
Aesthetica
IMA