Late Afternoon Along the River Windrush

Four weary English seniors seek refuge from an unusually warm June afternoon in Bourton-on-the-Water (the self-proclaimed Venice of the Cotswolds) on a bench along the River Windrush. This 2009 photograph possesses a touch of the absurd, with the perfectly still, faceless subjects lined up neatly on the bench, appearing to watch intently the action-less scene before them as one might attend to a show. Furthermore, the bench and its occupants seem to have been dropped into the foreground, unexpectedly, seated right in front of us, nearly in our space, outside the photo, bringing us into the scene. I also love the way the woman in pink, far right, on a second bench, is preoccupied with the four sitting together, while her husband rather absent mindedly considers a pigeon, as he hunches forward, resting the weight of his torso on his knees. This piece captures the slow, pleasant weariness of a warm summer holiday afternoon, the ennui of life's later years, and the playfulness that sometimes arises, naturally, when people come together in unoccupied moments.

Photograph by Dana Angotti-Novick