Hasta La Ideas

Photographs capturing the lazy, hazy flows of rivers, summer and youth

Opening at L.A.’s Hi-Lite studio space, “River Pictures” represents the culmination of photographer Ruben Cox’s summers spent cruising the waters of his Highlands, North Carolina hometown.

What started as casually documenting people while they enjoyed the river elements, grew over the course of three seasons during the late ’90s into an intimate glimpse of the slow Southern summer for an intriguing photo essay.

Curator Audrey Landreth notes, “Cox’s images capture real moments that speak to a greater experience: an American experience of fleeting summer and youth, the thrill of cool water on warm rocks; of goose bumps and distant laughter, of not wanting the sun to go down.”

Landreth continues, “They evoke a certain nostalgia for a simpler time and a lyrical, satisfying affinity towards the observance of ordinary people.”

This is the first time the extended series of work has been shown, although individual images have been previously published in the New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker.

“River Views” will be on view by appointment starting 17 July 2010 and running through 14 August 2010.