Drawn to Water

We are drawn to water for many reasons: for our health and survival, for spiritual rituals, for athletic endeavors, and often for the pure pleasure of social engagement. Water cleanses and invigorates. It is both life-giving and an unstoppable force. In the heat of a southern summer, it cools us and acts as a social focal point.

Water attracts every race and social strata. It can be a place of solitude or a location where one lets down one’s guard (along with much clothing), to commune with strangers. Water motivates us to dare and cushions our fall.

In this project I found myself drawn to the old landmarks that have remained the bookmarks of my memory and discovered that water was the common thread among them. Flowing down out of the Blue Ridge Mountains and finding its way to the Atlantic Ocean, it meanders its way across the southern landscape. My youthful fantasies were of Huck Finn floating down the Mississippi and my realities were tubing down mountain streams in water so cold it turned your lips blue.

I did build a raft once…It sunk.

My interest in these images is to examine the social significance of water in our lives. How deeply it is connected to memory, identity and a sense of place, how vital it is to protect. These photographs and first-person accounts capture the variety of human interactions found around beaches, lakes, and quarries, and along rivers, waterfalls, and swimming holes.

The exhibition will run from February 5, 2025 through March 2, 2025. There will be a closing reception on March 2nd from 2:00pm - 4:00pm.

About Bryce Lankard

Bryce Lankard has been making images for over 40 years. He has been an Art Director, Photo Editor, Curator, Educator and Principal Photographer for publications and organizations from New Orleans to New York City. His work turns a documentary approach largely on the American South. He was creative director of Tribe Magazine and co-founder of the New Orleans Photo Alliance. He is a co-founder of the Click! Photography Festival. He is an instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He has been in over 50 exhibitions. He was featured in “Across County Lines, Contemporary Photography from the Piedmont” at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. His retrospective “Dead Reckoning” was featured at the Light Factory in Charlotte, NC in 2022.