Layers leaks
- 📍 Location: Cascades du Flumen, Septmoncel-Les-Molunes, Jura, France
- 📅 Date: 2024
The cliff here is stacked in horizontal beds of limestone, and the water does not fall from the top of it — it leaks out of the seams between the layers, all the way down. Several thin falls run in parallel, each starting at a different height.
I framed vertically to hold the full drop and placed two mossy boulders in the pool at the bottom to anchor it. The pool is a deep jade, and the green of the moss on the cliff and the green of the water are close enough that the picture reads as a single colour with white lines drawn down it.
A moderate exposure keeps the falls as distinct ribbons rather than a single wash. That distinction matters: the subject is plurality, several separate streams from several separate seams, and blurring them together would have made it one ordinary waterfall.
The Jura is full of water that appears from inside rock rather than running along its surface, and I never quite get used to it. Standing at the foot of a cliff that is quietly sweating a river is one of the odder pleasures of working in this part of France.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
