After completing the shooting of Sleeping by the Mississippi in 2002, Alec Soth traveled to Bogotá, Colombia to adopt a baby girl. While the courts processed paperwork, he and his wife spent two months in the capital city waiting to take their new baby home.

“The baby’s birth mother gave the new parents a book filled with letters, pictures and poems. I hope that the hardness of the world will not hurt your sensitivity,” she wrote, “When I think about you I hope that your life is full of beautiful things.”

With these words as a mission statement, Soth began making his own book for his daughter. Soth writes, “In photographing the city of her birth, I hope I’ve described some of the beauty in this hard place.”

Beauty makes itself known through ramshackle architecture, the companionship of animals, and the perseverance of the human spirit. Yet, in Dog Days, Bogotá, Soth’s photographs transcend the simple description of beauty and poetically roam through a cast of strays, tough souls, and hints of hope.