The River Returns
After months of dry riverbed and large summer skies, the River Chelmer is finally flowing again.
I’d paused the project during the warmer months — everything felt too pretty, too pastoral. Blue skies, flat light, and not much mystery. But now, with the trees bare, the skies heavy, and the river once again running, the land feels more alive — or at least more interesting.
I went for a recce the other day to see how things were looking. The water is back. The mood has changed. The rope swing the kids had tied to a tree — which I filmed and photographed back in the summer while standing in the bone-dry riverbed — now hangs above the water, moving gently. In that earlier footage, I was photographing it with my old 9×12 Voigtländer plate camera, shooting paper negatives inside the bed of the river itself.
This short video marks a return — a quiet continuation of the Chelmer project. Just walking, looking, and letting the river settle back into the work.