For the tenth “FotoGrafia Festival Internazionle di Roma” in 2011, Alec Soth was commissioned to portray Rome with total freedom. The result of his work was the book “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, which was inspired by the the english poet John Keats, who spent 1821, the last months of his life in Rome.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Punctum Press 2011 © Alec Soth
“I remade Ruth Orkin’s iconic photograph, “An American Girl in Italy (1951).” But this photograph was just a jumping off point for a really crazy series of photographs. When I arrived in Rome, I’d just recovered from an illness and some other personal drama and was a little out of my mind. I was inspired by John Keats (who came to Rome to die in 1821) and ended up producing a series named after one of his poems: “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (“The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy”).” - Alec Soth (How to Revisit an Iconic Photograph)
An American Girl in Italy, 1951 © Ruth Orkin
Via Natale del Grand, Rome, 2011 © Alec Soth
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” was published by Punctum Press for the Fotografia Festival of Roma, 2011, in an edition of 500 copies (175 Italian / 325 English). Curated by Marco Delogu with an essay by Francesco Zanot.
For more information check out the blog post at phot(o)lia and the review by Douglas Stockdale. On photo-eye you can still get a copy of this great book.
@1 year ago with 3 notes(± )
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