Over the 3 years of University we have had the pleasure of looking at a vast amount o photographers and a variety of different work. One of my favourite bodies of work I have came across is 'Niagara' by Alec Soth which documents the town of Niagara bordering Canada and North America. With Niagara comes a sense of love and romance, many people will go to get married there. The Canadian side was filled with tacky motels and fast food restaurants where as the American side was seen as very bleak. There's something interesting about about a bleak and tacky area being romanticised and seen as a place for romance and marriage, its almost unconventional for the two to go together.
Soth looks at the area of Niagara and the ugly architecture that flows through the motels as well as its inhabitants which can also be seen flowing through his final publication. Along side these images are portraits of residents and couples/families who have came to Niagara for weddings which gives you a whole overview of Niagara as a place. Soth would find love letters left behind in motels or given to him from people writing to their loved ones with some more shocking and disturbing than others. One letter started with the line “I love you but you’ve become a piece of shit". This shows that love is not always what its cracked up to be. The tacky motels and cheap tourist attractions show love as an ideology and not necessarily what its made out to be.
What interested me most about 'Niagara' was Soth's ability to portray his view of Niagara and revealing a more ugly truth to the romanticised area.