Sleeping by the Mississippi: Alec Soth’s revealing photographs of America's "third coast"

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 series than its organising structure. Not bound by a rigid concept or ideology, it's created out of a quintessentially American spirit of wanderlust.

Also available in a book, which was first published thirteen years ago and is available soon as a new edition from MACK, the artist’s lyrical view has undoubtedly acquired new meanings – ones in which hope, fear, desire and regret coalesce in the evocative journey along this mythic river.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Alec Soth has published over twenty-five books including Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004), Niagara (2006) and Broken Manual (2010). Discover more at alecsoth.com. Or visit the show at Beetles + Huxley from 19 September until 21 October 2017.

Main image: New Orleans, Louisiana, 2002 © Alec Soth / Magnum Photos courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery, New York and Beetles + Huxley Gallery, London