Adventures in the Valley (2004-)

A collaboration between Polly Braden & David Campany

The River Lea runs from the Thames in east London up to Hertfordshire. Once a busy commercial waterway, it is now a nature reserve and leisure area. From the planned site for the 2012 Olympic Games it passes industrial estates, sports centres, new build homes and council estates.

Working together, Braden & Campany move between observational documentary and experimental stagings. There are poetic snapshots and theatrical incidents, naturalistic portraits and semi-fictional enactments. Responding to the strange beauty they find the photographs reflect the place but also reflect upon the processes and conventions of documentary at the same time .

Escape from the city; the reinvention of social spaces; the attraction of water; the meeting of different cultures; the persistence of nature. The project weaves together its motifs, building a complex description of the past, present and future of this half-forgotten thread of land.

Adventures in the Valley is an ongoing project. It was shown as a 150 image, 15 minute digital slideshow at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London as part of the programme London in Six Easy Steps, Summer 2005.