Bill Gore

Song of the Saugatuck | This project began with winter walks along the Saugatuck River and a fascination with the cascading falls, the dark pools, and the gleaming ice formations.  My image making is grounded in photographs of the river and all that I see in the present tense.  But I am drawn to digital imagery as an avenue into my mental pictures of the energy of the rushing waters and the life forces that unite and nourish all that lives along the riverbanks.  In making these images my thoughts and feelings go back to the people that once lived here and at the same time fast forward to the future. 

The Saugatuck River has nurtured indigenous cultures for thousands of years.  The most recent inhabitants were the Paugussetts who were erased by the colonists leaving only their word “saugatuck” meaning flowing waters.  The culture of the white man causes change and so now we must ask what comes next.  Will these waters continue to flow and what happens when the winter months are too warm for ice to form? www.billgorephotography.com