Photo Essay: A Portrait of the Yonne, by Rafael Quesada

By Rafael Quesada:

In the north of France, the Yonne river flows west of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. For over 8 years I made the journey to a small village that sits upon its river bank, Villiers-sur-Yonne.

Villiers is a commune in the Nièvre department and is home to no more than 270 inhabitants. Within the village, you will find no shops, no bars, and not even a doctor. You’ll be surrounded only by silence and the local church, of course. It’s one of many small time-capsuled oases that follows the river along its way.

This series is not about the river, but about what surrounds it. It looks at the beauty of abandonment, the magic of solitude, and the scars that time leaves on nature and human life. A collection of postcards remembering the Yonne.

Rafael Quesada is a Spanish self-taught photographer and professional designer currently living and working in The Netherlands. Moved by the urban environments and forms of landscapes, his photography is mainly focus on personal topics and explorations of the relationship with his surroundings.