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The photographs on this page were exhibited in Galeria La Pasionaria, Montevideo, Uruguay, from the 2^nd of June to the 23^rd of July, 2012.  They were selected from a series of photographs of the River Chafalote, Rocha, Uruguay.  They were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, using an EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens.    

It is impossible to understand, to absorb everything – you can only pass through, and hope to gain a little knowledge, a little something. 

In the woods bordering the river, it is difficult to take in everything; the tangle of vegetation, the extremes of light and shade.  You simply focus on what hits your eye.  Looking down, light is the strongest impression in the dark undergrowth, reflecting from the ever-changing waters of the river.  The river gives life to the passing woods, reflecting, revealing its surroundings in patterns of ever-changing light.

Water itself is a neutral entity, merely reflecting the environment surrounding it. Colours and shapes change constantly with the time of day, with the weather, with the seasons.  The texture of the surface shifts, from hard to soft, rough to smooth, reacting to the contours of the river bed, the movement of a fish, a sunken branch, stones, rocks, sand.  Insects, falling leaves, light breezes ripple the surface.

Depending on the position of the observer, the water reflects different facets of the same whole.  The sky is always the outermost layer of the reflection, behind clouds, branches, foliage.  Particles of suspended material in the water catch the entering sunlight.  Rays penetrating the shallows illuminate the riverbed. In spate, with fast, muddy currents and swirling eddies, the river reflects its surroundings more grudgingly.

In this series of photographs and videos, the water is seen from above, with no reference to the riverbank, showing only that which the water reflects. Facts matter in the way that photographs matter / photographs matter in the way facts that matter – they tell us something but never reveal the whole story.  Photographs edit reality; they conceal even as they reveal.  The more secret and hidden the river is, the more secrets it appears to reveal.

For the photographer, rivers were part of his childhood, fishing with his father, or sitting on the river bank watching others fish, spending hours just watching, with strong memories, especially of the fading light as the sun went down, and the changes of colour of the sky and the intensity of light mirrored in the rippling waters.

All photographs / videos are of the River Chafalote, near the village of 19 de Abril, in the Department of Rocha, Uruguay.  They were taken over a two-year period using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, with an EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens.

In the exhibition, a series of projected photographs showed the changes of the seasons – Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer.  The series of twelve videos were of summer scenes of the river from just after sunrise to just before sunset.

Sean Partridge

Exhibition brochure - click to enlarge