Upstream is an ongoing series made in the rivers, streams and woodlands of England and France. Inspired by the essays of the American poet Mary Oliver, the work is an invitation to truancy — to leaving behind the weight of daily life and following the pull of the natural world, upstream, away from the current.
In dialogue with Oliver's writing, the photographs attend to the hidden life of water and light: the sun embroidering darkness, patterned reflections forming and dissolving on the surface of a stream. They are rooted in Oliver's belief that attention is the beginning of devotion.
"Teach the children… Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms. Attention is the beginning of devotion."
Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays
The photographs are available as limited edition archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Metallic paper.
For exhibition enquiries, print sales or further information, please contact studio@catherinewingfield.photography