Currents - ongoing
The river has always been a part of human mythology, as a symbol of the flow of time and our earthly journey. With the ongoing project “Currents” I want to embrace the concept of motion and change, as I travel along one of the last wild rivers in Europe to photograph people I meet and places I see.
The powerful Vindel River in northern Sweden floods from the mountains close to the Norwegian border and across the mythical inland of Västerbotten to discharge in the Baltic Sea. The inland of Västerbotten has for a long time been severely affected by urbanization and depopulation. But lately new blood is coming in through the flow of migration. What is left behind when people flow away? What is created when people are flowing in?
In the 1960’s there was a big conflict in Sweden as the state wanted to start exploiting the Vindel River. The massive protests against it eventually stopped the plans. The debate raised one important question: Who is nature for? Something that has become an alarming topic again, today. The untouched river can remind us that there are other ways to live.
The never ending currents of the river and the cyclical flow of the water represent eternity and transformation at the same time. It’s also a common metaphor for the unconscious.
I’m not yet sure what I want to say with my pictures. As it has done to so many people before me, the river called. And I answered.
Elin Berge