The last few blogs have had quite a few references to the River Thames. I think the time has come for me to give a clearer introduction to my Thames project.
Beginnings
As a specific project, the River Thames became a major element of my photography in the spring of 2023. It was then that I scanned the first roll of slides from the first camera I ever bought. There was one picture that I must have taken standing on London Bridge. It looks downstream to the Tower of London and HMS Belfast. On the right of the picture are warehouses of the former London docks that were waiting for demolition or gentrification. I'm showing this picture again here, having mentioned it previously in a 2023 blog. This image turned out to be seminal. It made me realise that without ever having intended to photograph the Thames as a project, one way or another, I've been photographing it through most of my adult life.
1975: the view to Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast from London Bridge
I began to collect images in my archive that relate to the Thames and to assemble the beginnings of a project. It was at that point that I felt the impetus to go out and photograph the Thames more consistently. From mid-2023 until now, I have tried to commit to photographing the Thames every month.
Why am I fascinated by the River Thames? I have a lot of personal and family connections to it. I have seen the River Thames described as a living museum. Possibly. But a museum implies that it's something behind closed doors, probably set in a glass case, not to be touched. So that doesn't sound right. Living history — that's better — history that is alive. Then again, living history is something that tends to be interpreted by actors dressed up to portray the past or by exhibits of historical artefacts. There is all of that. But much more, it is a feeling of connection with the deep past. Almost everywhere you can stand on the banks of the River Thames, or where you can sail in a boat, has a story associated with it that resonates into the present. My photographs spring from that connection.
What is the project?
It is my personal portrait of the Thames, a quarter of the way through the 21st century. The thread that connects the pictures is the changing character as it flows from west to east, from a narrow infant stream all the way to the estuary, broad enough to stretch to the horizon.
As a very rough approximation of the changing character, I tend to think of it this way. There is the seasonal source; the rural stretch from around Waterhay/Cricklade (where it begins to behave more like a continuous river) to Reading; the affluent Thames from Reading to about Vauxhall; the tourist Thames from about the MI6 building (with its James Bond vibes) to Greenwich; the regenerating Thames from about Greenwich/Canary Wharf to the Thames Barrier; the industrial Thames from the Barrier to the Yantlet Line. (There are many exceptions to this heuristic: towns along the “rural river” stretch can have very affluent parts, there are poorer parts in the affluent regions and so on, but this is a reasonable set of approximations in my view.)
The pictures are what I react to personally and my response; it might be anything — a patch of purple loosestrife growing on a bank, an island glimpsed through morning mist, or an unexpected juxtaposition. My pictures are close — often at water level, so the viewer feels as though they are in the river — rarely from a very high vantage point or away from the sight of the river. People may be in the images, but they are rarely the focus except insofar as their actions relate to the river.
What else is the project?
“One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” (Minor White)
The spring at Thames Head (left) dry in autumn and (right) wet after winter rains in January
The point I made earlier about connections I feel to the deep past means that the “what else” the pictures are is intrinsic to the project. For example, my double picture of Thames Head in the winter with water springing from the rocks below the Thames Head stone, or completely dry after a long summer, is not just a record of the Cotswolds hydrology, it is also a connection to ancient times when the Thames was a sacred — and capricious —presence as well as a vital resource.
The last picture in my book was looking out into the estuary from Shellness: a flock of oystercatchers flying in front of a windfarm and the sails of two yachts. A record of what can be seen while standing on the beach, certainly, but a conceptual link to the natural history of the estuary: birds that use the wind and predate humans altogether; windfarms that harness useful energy from the wind, but sit on bird migration routes and will also pose a long burden of disposal after the end of their useful life; yachts that represent the ancient history of man's use of the wind to travel long distances in the least destructive manner possible.
Oystercatchers and the windfarm
The first book
The book (1st Edn) — the cover picture is the opening picture above
By last autumn, I felt that I had enough images to start to put together a book that would convey my impressions of the Thames from the source to the sea. I was recommended to a Polish company called Colorland by my friend Tim Pile, and they turned out to be the perfect choice for my first book. By Christmas 2025, I had produced a 30 cm x 30 cm hardback book with 128 images covering the project as it stood at the time. This was an astonishingly satisfying project and outcome.
I had GPS tagged every image, so, for the book, I was able to assemble a map in QGIS that showed the camera position for each image. One of the things about having a map is that you can see how much you have and have not achieved. The map had great gaps where I hadn't been, and there were several concepts that I hadn't been able to get to. Two of the most important were the seasonal nature of the Thames near its source and the alternative (“ultimate”) source of the Thames at Seven Springs. I've already blogged about those. This year, following on from that, has been about filling in gaps and extending concepts.
Map of the project as it stands. The map shows southern England with the Thames snaking as a blue line through the middle. Major tributaries are shown as slimmer blue lines. Camera locations for finished images are shown as orange blobs. Built-up areas are shown in darker shading; the boundaries of a few towns/cities along the Thames are highlighted. Map drawn in QGIS. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 and Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 2026.
My aim now is to produce a second edition of the book around Christmas 2026 or New Year 2027. The chances are it's going to get too big for just a single volume. The first edition, with 128 images, was about as much as would fit into a single book. It's a long way off, so things may well change, but my general feeling is that I may do two books. One would be "the freshwater Thames", a general term I could use for the part of the Thames that is non-tidal and governed by locks and weirs; in other words, from the source to Teddington Lock. The other part would be the tidal Thames from Teddington to the Estuary.
Over the course of this year, I’ll be producing more blogs from my Thames project as time goes on. More to come!