The Labour of Rivers is an ongoing series about the fishermen who work the Andoni River in Rivers State, Nigeria. For the men photographed here, the river is both workplace and inheritance — a rhythm of mornings out on the water, long hours of patience, and the slow return to shore.
The series moves through the day as it unfolds: stillness before first light, the work of fishing and hauling, the exchange with traders at the bank, and the marks the river leaves on hands and bodies. Cooler tones carry the early hours; warmer ones close the day. It is a quiet record of a way of life shaped entirely by the water.
— Chukwudi Nwachukwu, Port Harcourt