Frenchman Nicolas Floc’h Traveled 13,000 Miles to Photograph All the Colors of the Mississippi River. Here’s What He Discovered.
Nicolas Floc’h traveled the entire Mississippi River to document its colors. Photo by Maureen Robin.
Some artists find inspiration in hidden places: from the views on a rooftop, or the sole design of their shoe, maybe even in the depths of underwater landscapes. And when French photographer Nicolas Floc’h wanted to know what the colors of the Mississippi River looked like last year, he barely hesitated before he took to canoeing the waterway to find out.
For six months in 2022, Floc’h traveled across the entirety of the U.S. watershed, following the way of the water and documenting his findings through the lens of his camera. As a creative resident of New York’s revamped Villa Albertine, Floc’h injected his creativity into the often unnoticed yet incredibly expansive watershed, with the aim of calling attention to the importance of underwater landscapes for our world. With a van, an inflatable canoe, and an underwater camera, he photographed 224 sites in more than 31 states — from the river’s source in Minnesota all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. He successfully took more than a thousand photos of the different colors of the water, including unexpected shades of red, green, and yellow — results of the different mineral elements from rocks, as well as human activities that impact the ecosystem.
Here, Floc’h shares what it was like to travel 13,000 miles and explore the Mississippi River’s basin; why it’s important to shed light on what may be invisible to the naked eye; and how water can come in many colors (all except violet, as he discovered).
16 photographs of the largest watershed in the U.S. Photos by Nicolas Floc’h.
Why study rivers in your photography? And why the Mississippi River, in particular?
Everything on Earth works together in geological, biological, and chemical cycles — rivers, oceans, the atmosphere, ice. My photography is a reading of that interaction, which is important to study today on our small planet. The ocean makes up 71% of the Earth’s surface, and all living elements on this planet come from and are inextricably linked to this space. One example is phytoplankton, which gives water its green color and produces about half of the oxygen that we breathe. But somehow, this space and its relationships are invisible to most people.
For me, the Mississippi was a very interesting site to study because there is no equivalent to it. The huge watersheds in the world are the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Congo, and the Yangtze. And what is really specific to the Mississippi is just how much of the surrounding land is modified by human activities. It’s a big agricultural, industrial, urban area that is overrun with activity that has modified the area. You won’t find the same activities in the big watersheds in Africa or in South America (though you might in China). So in a worldwide approach, the Mississippi is so particular and has an immense planetary influence.
What was your creative journey about? What was it like to go on this creative adventure and travel 13,000 miles to explore the Mississippi River’s basin?
There were two parts to the trip. The first part was in Louisiana and it was mainly by boat. My guide is from Louisiana and his name is Richie Blink. He brought me to the Mississippi River Delta region because he knows the area. That’s where I worked for the first two months, documenting this site where the Mississippi enters into the ocean and where the colors are changing as the water flows into the ocean. The second leg of the trip was by car, studying the territory. I wasn’t driving — I don’t have a driving license — but not because of that. I can’t observe the scenery and take photographs while driving at the same time. So I had an assistant, Maureen, who drove us during the trip.
For the trip, I had a van and an inflatable canoe. And I went through these little rocky roads in the middle of nowhere. But I always knew precisely where I was going, looking to document the different colors of the river, as the water guided me. My photos tell a story about what I went through, kind of like a panorama view of the whole experience of following the way of the water. And it’s all about what the images tell you. With this series, I hope you can make your own reading of the territory.
Great Falls, Montana. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
What was your artistic approach?
My approach was to start from outside of the territory because, to be able to read water involves researching the colors and seeing how a drop of water travels through space. Water can travel from anywhere on Earth: the ocean, or from the sky, from inside the earth, or through the land. And each drop brings with itself some of this land and its activities, and it goes into rivers like the Mississippi. And my work was to follow the water, but not in a straight line because the Mississippi is not a line. It’s a full web of rivers, shaped by the past and the present. And it’s shaping the future.
It was very important to me to capture a diverse range of colors as landscape narratives. I managed to get almost the full color spectrum — except violet, which you can only find in very pure waters or in the middle of the Pacific.
Rivers Ocean Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, 2022. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
Rivers Ocean Mississippi, Yellowstone river, Wyoming, 2022. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
These are two different photos of the Mississippi River. Floc’h managed to capture almost the full color spectrum, including shades of blue and yellow.
How did you take pictures underwater? What about getting your camera wet?
Well, it didn’t get wet. It was in a box that was designed to go in the water. I took pictures inside the water, at different depths, with a wide angle camera. Wide angle camera lenses achieve different results depending on the environment and how clear the water is. In a river, the light travels only a few meters down, and the color becomes more saturated the deeper the water is, until there is absolute darkness. In an open ocean, however, the light can reach a couple hundred meters below the surface.
Missouri Confluence Area, South Dakota. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
Rocks in North Dakota. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
Mississippi River Bayou. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
Did you ever get lost? Or encounter any other challenges?
I didn’t get lost because it’s so easy to get around nowadays with digital tools like maps. Sometimes access to the river was complicated, but we were lucky because we could have encountered so many problems that we didn’t. For example, we tried to avoid big highways because driving in the U.S. is mad. I thought that driving here would be cool, but it’s not. That’s something we learned.
Also, in North Dakota and a few other remote places, the locals hadn’t encountered the French very much. I guess the water brings you to areas that people don’t usually traverse.
Rivers Ocean Mississippi, Rum River, Anoka, Minnesota, 2022. Photo by Nicolas Floc’h.
What impressions did you leave with after six months in the U.S.?
You don’t see people walking outside of big cities, mostly just driving! But now that I am back in France, working in the Rhône watershed, I’m starting to notice the same thing here, though on a smaller scale. There were things I saw about the American way of life that now I find in many places in France.
There were a few surprises like that. When you go abroad, you inevitably try to get a read on the environment. And unfortunately, sometimes this idea of exoticism can interrupt that reading. But if you try to read your own territory, you can always draw similarities and comparisons. I try to avoid working in any exoticism; it’s not my objective, and I don’t ever want to look at things that way.
So now, I want to see how Americans from different backgrounds read the colors. Because every color brings its identity from the land. Each photo tells a precise story, yet at the same time, it is a totally open image, in which the viewer can imagine the story. The color is something totally real, reflecting a real landscape, but at the same time, it looks abstract. It seems like painting but it’s photography.
If you’d like to read more from Creative Factor, subscribe to our newsletter. Or looking to tell your brand story? Introducing Creative Factor’s Storytelling Studio.
Plus, more great reads right this way…