What Lies Within?
What Lies Within? explores the state of Britain’s rivers. Our waterways should be beautiful but through lack of planning and investment, regulatory failure and indifference, the systems we rely on have broken down. At the same time, modern methods in animal farming have been massively over-extended. Our rivers are now being used as a dumping ground, an attempt to make things just disappear. The effect can be seen on many levels - rivers not fit to swim in, considerable loss of insect biodiversity and fish numbers and varieties drastically reduced.
These images relay the story of seemingly sublime countryside rivers, which on closer inspection show serious evidence of pollution, the causes of this and the knock-on effects. But there is also a story of hope (evidenced in ‘Health of the River I-IV). In our wilder areas there are rivers that remain clear, a source of joy, and what we do know is that given the conditions and opportunity, nature will always overcome adversity and restore the balance of life.
In The Beginning, a diptych The Elan River and Reservoir in the Elan Valley, May
Hidden I and II, a diptych River Lugg, Bodenham, January
A Barren Riverbed, Colwell Brook, Witney, Oxfordshire
The River Wye at Tintern Abbey, January
Marbled Pollution - oil road run off, heading towards the River Kennet
The Wye at Brockweir, January, motionless and covered in spots of foam
An Opaque Green River, April
The Wye at Brobury, devoid of plantlife
Choking Nature, CSO release, Clanfield Watercourse, Oxfordshire
The Health Of The River I, plant and insect life, biodiversity on the River Kennet, Wiltshire
The Health Of The River II, The Kennet at Stonebridge Wild River Reserve, Marlborough
The Health Of The River III, Thriving Ranunculus, River Kennet at Hungerford
The Health Of The River IV, Flowering Ranunculus, River Cheddar Yeo, Mendip Hills and Cheddar Gorge
A Chance Of Clear Water?, The River Wye north of Rhayader, Wales
The Way To The Sea, the end of the Wye as it moves towards the Severn Estuary. It is an ecological disaster