An Uneasy Paradise

 
 

From the open vistas of the Pewsey Vale to the wooded hills of the Limpley Stoke Valley, a community has grown that is quite unlike any other. United by a stretch of water that shapes a communal identity, people of diverse ages and backgrounds have been drawn to a way of life by the beauty and the freedom that it has to offer. A people whose way of life is under pressure as the rules and regulations by which the waterways are governed transform and tighten.

By their presence, and by their numbers, a need within society for spaces of affordability and freedom is demonstrated. Humanity cannot exist at this pace, at this level of consumption, and without spaces such as these where the individual mind can grow, rest and flourish, the human spirit will find no peace.

Sebastien and Louise have been travelling and exploring the Inland Waterways of the UK on their narrowboat for almost a decade. Captured exclusively on film, this photography book is an intimate portrait, through the seasons, of the community at the Western end of the Kennet and Avon Canal.