Robbie Lawrence - Blackwater River

As a graphic designer and a fine arts photographer, there is nothing I admire more than a well-conceived and executed hardcover photobook. Robbie Lawrence’s Blackwater River is the best designed and produced photobook I have seen this year. A book of Robbie’s hauntingly beautiful photos would certainly be enough to warrant anyone’s attention, but incorporate them in a book designed as beautifully as this and it becomes an essential part of any photobook collection.
From the publisher's press release:
On a map of the south-eastern U.S., the 245-mile Ogeechee River cuts a diagonal path across Eastern Georgia before curling south of the city of Savannah and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. It is known locally as Blackwater River for its slow-moving waters that are like black glass, reflecting the sky and flora over- head and masking the tangle of life forces beneath. In November 2017, Robbie Lawrence, accompanied by writer Sala Patterson, travelled to the Low Country, the coastal region straddling Georgia and South Carolina near where the Ogeechee River meets the ocean with the aim of documenting the nuances of issues driving news cycles and political divisions through the lens of one place in America.
Blackwater River captures, in image and spirit, Lawrence’s time in the Low Country – a series of profound encounters and abstract reflections, some inspiring, others harsh but all indelible. Each moment is individually significant while collectively hinting at larger, more elusive truths.