flowers drink the river
Pia-Paulina Guilmoth
It is hard to describe the complexity in flowers drink the river. A photobook by Pia-Pauline Guilmoth (born 1993). It spans the first two years of Pia’s gender transition. She photographs her small community of about 1.500 people in rural Maine. The beauty as well as the terror of living as a trans woman in a small conservative town. Being a trans woman there can be very scary. She had been keeping her transition a secret. At the same time she knew she could not hide her changing body. Making photographs gave her the energy to want to continue fighting each day.
The book is a stunning object. The cover is bound in pink paper with on it a blood red line drawing of a spiderweb. At the top of the cover there is a linen strip with the author’s name printed on it. On the back cover again a drawing of a spiderweb. Hold together with three sets of hands. A couple of daisies caught in the web. The inside of the front cover has a black-and-white photo pasted in the middle.
The book reveals a dreamscape of mud, earth and stone. It tells a story about personal identity and a life as a outsider in a small community. The pictures are mysterious. The feeling of the pictures resemble the feeling of the pictures in Sleep Creek. A photobook Guilmoth made with Dylan Hausthor.
flowers drink the river
Photographer: Pia-Paulina Guilmoth
Publisher: Stanley/Barker
Published in 2024
Hardback, swiss bound with facsimmile contact print and fabric tip-in on cover
80 pages, 30 x 24 cm
Shortlisted for the 2025 Paris Photo – Aperture Photobook of the Year Award