In the follow-up to his critically-praised monograph "Sleeping by the Mississippi", Alec Soth turns his eye to another iconic body of water, Niagara Falls. But as with his photographs of the Mississippi, Soth's pictures of Niagara are less about natural wonder than human desire. "I went to Niagara for the same reason as the honeymooners and suicide jumpers," says Soth, "the relentless thunder of the Falls just calls for big passion."

While the subject may be intense, these are quiet pictures. Using a large-format 8x10 camera, the photographs are rigorously composed and richly detailed. Working...