Untitled, from the series The Bitterroot River

Artwork Description

The photographs in this series reflect on the intense connection our memory can form between people and place. Drawn from more than one hundred images made along Montana's Bitterroot River in the years following the death of a loved one, Bosworth later assembled them to create this narrative sequence. The solemn tone of the images speaks of resignation and vulnerability as currents and eddies slip along the river surface from one frame to the next only to disappear. But there is also affirmation and hope to be found in these graceful gestures—the arc of a young tree reaching across the river or a fish offered in outstretched hands—and reassurance in the continually renewing surface of the river: "I wanted to hold on to all the life that remained around me, and by securing my world in a photograph I convinced myself it could not totally be taken away."

Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth exhibition label