→ project: unwearied still
(2024 - ongoing)
‘Unwearied Still’ is an ode to William Butler Yeats' poem ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’. Through photographing the swans inhabiting my neighbourhood river in Berlin, this visual diary transforms the everyday presence of swans into a meditation on time, nature, and the subtle rhythms of life.
The project serves as a testament to the power of beauty in unexpected places and a reminder of the profound connections that can be forged when we commit to seeing the world around us with fresh eyes each day. The images are a reflection on constancy and change, and how to find beauty and meaning in the act of patient, sustained observation.
Through the ritualistic practice of photographing swans – unchanged yet ever-changing – the series reveals the often-overlooked narratives unfolding just beyond our doorsteps.
The Wild Swans at Coole
By William Butler Yeats
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?