Access to the river's edge is not taken for granted. Pushing turns to ripping as I try to reach the water beyond the multi-flora rose brambles. The river is sacred. And desecrated. Avoiding barbs and plucking vegetable-teeth out of my swollen skin... the fiery shot of poison... this is the river too. The river defends itself with thorns like daggers. In my time, even rivers arm themselves and draw blood from trespassers like me. I give my blood willingly, to be by the river's edge. I give my blood to the river as penance for my species crimes. To relieve me of shame. I walked many miles alongside the Ford River. At times I walked its edge, at times I walked its icy flow, and at times I was forced from its proximity by roses growing along the shore. The river shore was most impassable where it was most disturbed. I became familiar with its supple movement and its sharp edges. The photos were made over many months returning to the Ford river, and the collection is a portrait of the river. There is a story of elemental beauty and asphalt. There is a story of bondage and freedom and friendship. The photographic medium- a language without human breath or tongue- allows the river to speak. To be. Untranslated. I edited digital photos into black and white because the complexity of the river- overlapping foliage, the invisible energy passing between rock and water, the many million colors of the rainbow- is overwhelming. Reducing light to a simple binary, there and not-there, brings out the subject more clearly. No language is without bounds. Extending bounds to infinity does not always result in knowledge, freedom, or bliss. Restricting the linguistic boundary unleashes the imagination. Simplifying form deepens thought.
The upholder of the cycles which sustain all Life is water. In every drop of water dwells a deity whom indeed we all serve. There also dwells Life, the soul of the primal substance - water - whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it, and in which it circulates. Every pulse beat arising through the interaction of will and resistance is indicative of creative work and urges us to care for those vessels, those primary and most vital structures, in which throbs the product of a dualistic power - Life.Viktor Schauberger
