In Flowers Drink the River, her new book published by Setanta Books, Pia-Paulina Guilmoth reflects on her gender transition through a haunting tale where the power of community meets the sacredness of nature.
Flowers Drink the River was born out of darkness. Unemployed, homeless, forced to return to her parents’ house, terrified at the thought of coming out, and trapped in a body she longed to escape, Pia-Paulina Guilmoth went through a time of profound depression. For nearly a year, she could not create a single picture. Transitioning was impossible in the rural New Hampshire area where she lived—she didn’t feel safe.
Light found its way back in the form of a phone call from a friend, offering her a place to stay in Maine. Surrounded by her “chosen family,” she began hormone replacement therapy and picked up her camera again : “As soon as I was able to start my new life here in 2022, I all of a sudden had new energy to create things again, and to document the world I now inhabit. Flowers Drink the River is the result of these past years. Love, embracing change, and finding beauty in dark times is what ties this work together ultimately.”
Though darkness reigns over the pages of this book, it holds a breath of life, a mysterious, almost supernatural force that animates beings in the depth of night. Covered in mud, immersed in water or tall grass, these figures are the discreet protagonists of a world devoted to nature. From macro to micro, Pia-Paulina Guilmoth observes the natural world with patient admiration, returning repeatedly to the same locations to witness the continuous cycle of growth, life, and death. Like a spider on its web, she can spend hours waiting for a pattern to emerge before her lens. For her, nature holds a sacred essence: “She is something I want to protect and worship.”
The cycles of creation and transformation inherent to nature mirror the changes the photographer herself has undergone in recent years. Hormone therapy offered her a second puberty, allowing her to reconnect with her youth. However, hormones cannot erase everything—her bone structure remains unchanged: “It’s a constant reminder of pain, or of growth, depending on how I choose to see it. And I view the landscape the same way. Everywhere in this state, the forests bear the scars of industry, of colonization, of pain, of diseases affecting certain species. But in the same breath, one can also witness its growth and flourishing.”
Pia-Paulina Guilmoth finds the strength for resilience in a continuous search for beauty. Through her lens, the everyday becomes dreamlike. For someone who likens the act of photography to spellwork, every movement of nature, every gesture of her surroundings, is an opportunity to summon a sense of magic in her images—a feeling heightened by the omnipresence of night. After all, isn’t midnight the witching hour? For the photographer, darkness represents both a space of creativity and a refuge, granting her the freedom and safety that daylight often denies: “In daylight is when I’ve had most of my scary encounters with people, been harassed, been followed.”
Both an ode to the supernatural beauty of nature and a testament to the importance of community and inclusivity, Flowers Drink the River was born from the night yet radiates with light. Now more than ever, as her country’s government wages an aggressive attack on trans rights, Pia-Paulina Guilmoth reminds us that “what’s real is that as long as trans, queer, and marginalized people can find community, joy, love, and beauty in our lives, they can never destroy us.”
Pia-Paulina Guilmoth – Flowers Drink The River
Published by Stanley/Barker, 2025
80 pages, 30 x 24 cm
Available in good bookstores and online
