Thames Log by Chloe Dewe Mathews

A collection of works by British photographer/videographer Chloe Dewe Mathews.

The theme of this book is the ever-changing relationship between people and water, from the festivals of paganism, an ancient belief, to the rituals of modern life. Matthews spent five years filming, making many trips along the Thames, from its puddle-like headwaters to its mouths that form great estuaries. She lives unnoticed by the river, whether it's a shipspotter who keeps track of ships passing through Tilbury near its mouth, or a mudlark who scours the swamps of London in search of Roman and Saxon treasures. Focus on people. Away from the estuary, which changes its face twice a day with the ebb and flow of the tide, the youthful Thames flows gently through the green countryside. Here Matthews meets neopagan ritualists, bizarre boat builders, and protectors of swans, the queen's bird. A never-fixed, fluid identity, the River Thames is the setting for everything from the ship-burning ceremonies of Oxford to the evening prayers of the Southend, to mass baptisms and rites of passage attended by teenage boys and girls. , it plays a leading role in various rituals that are continuously performed from upstream to the mouth of the river. Despite being one of the most iconic and well-documented of the world's rivers, the Thames that the artist depicts, beyond the river itself, encompasses public and private, large and small religious and non-religious communities. It encourages students to think about traditional rituals and how they form meaning and identity.

(Excerpt from distributor commentary)

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Title: Thames Log
Artist: Chloe Dewe Mathews
Loose Joints/Martin Parr Foundation, 2021
Softcover with flaps, perfect binding, French-fold
295 x 243 x 15 mm
152 pagesText in English
First edition
¥6,500 + tax