The Catchment Project is a documentary photography and writing project that tells the story of a large river catchment, and the rivers’ journey from its headwaters, through the villages, towns and cities and out to sea. The catchment is the Mersey Catchment in England, whose rivers rise on the moorland and go on to flow through Manchester and Liverpool. The project tells the story of the people and communities who come into contact with these rivers for whatever reason, be that work related or leisure.
The Catchment Project highlights two big ecological issues facing all rivers: connectivity (open flow between all stages of the river to allow free passage to, for example, migratory fish such as salmon) and disconnect (that breaks that free flow, with man-made barriers such as weirs).
“It will further develop these two themes of connectivity and disconnect, and show how they manifest themselves in human communities too, in a less denotative treatment of the project concept. Behind all this there is climate change and its impact, both on the rivers themselves in terms of increasing droughts and floods, and on both the physical and mental wellbeing of the communities. The project will be made over a 12 month period and has started this summer (2024). These are some preliminary pictures.”
About the author – Andrew Griffiths
Andrew is a writer and documentary photographer who lives on the Manchester side of the Peak District in the UK. He has been writing and photographing news and features for newspapers and magazines in the UK, Ireland and USA for about 15 years now, for local, regional, national and international press. He specializes in the environment – particularly rivers. Titles Andrew’s work has appeared in include BBC Wildlife Magazine, BBC Countryfile Magazine (news and features for both) Telegraph (including Saturday magazine main features and Weekend section) Guardian, Times, Independent, inews, all the major angling magazines in the UK including a current monthly column on water regulatory policy and politics, Derbyshire Life, Yorkshire Post, Lancashire Life, Cheshire Life – and others. In the States he has written multiple stories for Gray’s Sporting Journal and currently writing for American Fly Tyer. He has had hundreds of his photographs published in many of these major newspapers and magazines listed here, including travel features for Gray’s Sporting Journal in the USA.
Instagram: @andrewgriffiths92
