Vrangfos, Telemarken after 1896

This photograph of Vrangfos, Telemarken, captures a vessel navigating the river's course. The river, here, serves as a potent symbol – a pathway connecting disparate realms. The image evokes ancient waterways depicted in myth and art, such as the rivers of the underworld, or the river Styx traversed by Charon. Like these symbolic channels, the river in Nyblin’s photograph marks both a physical journey and a passage through existential space. Waterfalls, like the one barely visible in the distance, have been symbolically charged since antiquity. Waterfalls appear in art as symbols of the sublime, where viewers might contemplate nature’s power and, consequently, humanity’s place within the cosmos. Even now, the subconscious echoes of these motifs resonate. The river, the boat, and the waterfall remind us of the cyclical nature of existence, where beginnings and ends converge. The river's course is never linear; it ebbs and flows, adapting and reshaping the landscape, much like the symbols and meanings we carry within us.