There is only one river.

Fifty years ago, I walked a spit of land in a river. On one side, black water and the night. On the other, street lights shrouded in fog.

Later, I watched through a window as fog engulfed the buildings.

I wrote a poem, “That night, the river was split …”

The poem is long-ago lost.

The next day was full of activity and bright edges. Or it was not. That memory is lost.

There is no path away from loss, but the river persists, though it is never the same river. Perhaps images I make of a river could also persist, though I am also inconstant.

These are my images of the Assabet. There is constancy and instability, clarity and uncertainty, darkness and light.

“Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers”.

Not only are there disagreements about the translation of the Greek, there are disagreements about the original content. Heraclitus was preserved only in fragments. One fragment seems to be talking about the ever-changing river. Another seems to be talking about the ever-changing person stepping into it.

I have been visiting the Assabet River since returning to live here in early 2025. My visits vary in location, season, time-of-day, and weather. I have been literally stepping into the river.

As I slog through mud, ice, and sinewy brambles, I consider that nothing stands still: not text, not the river, and not me. Yet, here I am, freezing time on the freezing river, catching the plants at one instant in their journey from summer to winter, and myself in one spot in the mud.

Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν.

Acknowledgements

For over 12,000 years, the vicinity of the Assabet River has been inhabited and cared for by Indigenous people. I acknowledge that the land depicted in this work is the original homeland of the Nipmuc, Massachusett, and Pawtucket tribal nations.

This work would not exist without the creative guidance of my teachers: Emily Belz & my son, Caleb MacKenzie-Margulies - il miglior fabbro; and my fellow students in the Atelier 40 cohort at the Griffin Museum of Photography: Adrien Bisson, Craig Childs, Sue Collins, Ellen Foust, Will Korn, Julia Levites, Darrell Roak, Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano, and Beth Wiese.

Benson Margulies — Photography

There is only one river