Alluvium III Photograph - Limited Edition of 5

Alluvium – organic and inorganic material deposited by rivers and streams over a period, usually most extensively developed in the lower parts of the course of the river or stream, forming floodplains and deltas. The deposits can originate from anywhere upstream along the course of flow, and if the river is fed into by smaller streams, the area of origin of the alluvial deposits becomes even greater. This sediment washed along by the water’s flow may contain any number of valuable ore and gemstones. The result of alluvium being deposited in one place means that erosion took place elsewhere – a process which, from an agricultural and conservation point of view is undesirable, yet, much of agricultural land exists on alluvium. The one can not exist without the other. Erosion has also lead to the exposure of fossils buried deep under layers of soil. Alluvium itself being a confluence of material from a wide range of origins, is an apt metaphor for systems like cultures, cities, or even our psyches – all intrinsically linked in the same way that organisms and populations are linked within an ecosystem, the inflow of which is often driven by some sort of flow beyond our control, washing in new and unknown but often valuable substances into our being, and in the process constantly shaping, changing our inner landscape or the political landscape or the global trajectory of our collective future – changes that are inevitable. Alluvium explores the flow and unceremonious dumping of events and people into our lives by forces greater than us – on every scale, from the personal to the global, and compares it with alluvial plains where this confluence has created something quite remarkable, but ethereal, because with the next flood, what is right now, will have changed beyond recognition.