Alec Soth

The photographs in Alec Soth's beautiful book, "Sleeping by the Mississippi," disturb me and fascinate me in a way that Diane Arbus' work may have done to many people in the 1970's. The sense of uncomfortable voyeurism, or the freak-show nature of the subject matter, creates real tension with the sublime technical transcription of these characters and their everyday surroundings.

The fact that I continue to think about them, and that I can envision the pictures without having them in front of me, attests to their haunting quality.

I'm interested to know how other people respond to this work.