This photograph combines several different landscapes along the Altamaha River.

Nuclear Power Plant, Altamaha River, Georgia

Artist Ansley West Rivers (American, born 1983)

Date2014

Mediumarchival pigment print

DimensionsImage: 40 × 50 inches (101.6 × 127 cm)
Sheet: 44 × 55 inches (111.8 × 139.7 cm)
Framed: 44 7/8 × 56 1/8 inches (114 × 142.6 cm)

Portfolio/Series"Seven Rivers" series

Credit LineMuseum purchase with Telfair Museum of Art acquisitions endowment funds.

Object number2019.34.1

On View

Not on view

Copyright© Ansley West Rivers. The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextAfter a kayaking trip through the Grand Canyon, Ansley West Rivers resolved to document the history and importance of American waterways. She challenged herself to photograph seven rivers—from source to sea—across the United States. Using photography’s inherent capacity to mark time, West Rivers bears witness to the state of water in its current moment; she holds a mirror to the beauty and degradation of these North American watersheds and prompts a reflection on the changes to water sources around the globe. Nuclear Power Plant, Altamaha River, Georgia captures the Altamaha River, which winds its way through West Rivers’s native Georgia and into the Atlantic. The river is a largely untouched body of water that boasts an incredibly rich ecosystem. It is continually threatened by the encroaching industry on its shores. The photograph embodies West Rivers’s unique photographic process using her large-format camera. She creates multiple compositions on a negative plate by shooting several exposures onto each frame with the help of masking tools that are placed in front of the lens. The tools allow her to avoid double exposures, and all imagery is made in-camera rather than in post-production. The magic of her process is revealed in the photograph as water floats ethereally above the solid, direct tower of the power plant. This constructed scene reminds the viewer of the tenuous thread between protection and destruction. The views do not exist as real vistas but offer a new vision for the beholder. Mundane river scenes are transformed into complicated, artistically masterful, and sublime views that reveal the complexities affecting fresh water and the effects of unbridled human activity on nature.

Subject MatterEdwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant, near Baxley, Georgia on the Altamaha River

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