Anatomy of the flow

Anatomy of the Flow is an exploration of rivers as both physical and symbolic arteries—shaping landscapes, identities, and ideologies. The Mura, Drava, and Danube—once seen primarily as frontiers, battlegrounds, or tools of industry—are reframed here as sentient witnesses to histories of conflict, resilience, and transformation. In following their 700-kilometer journey through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia, this project reveals a space where borders dissolve into sediment, and where political currents are etched into ecological veins.

The UNESCO designation of this corridor as the ‘Amazon of Europe’ promises protection, yet also exposes contradiction. While the vision of restoration is ambitious, it competes with embedded traditions of fishing, farming, and hydropower—practices that have fed generations but now threaten the very systems that sustain them. What happens when a river is asked to serve both progress and preservation? Through photography and long-form reporting, we map not only the visible contours of these rivers, but the unseen tensions flowing beneath: between national pride and transnational stewardship, between human control and ecological surrender.

Created in collaboration with fellow Inlander Melanie Wenger and supported by the Journalism Fund, Anatomy of the Flow traverses both banks—literal and metaphorical—of this complex terrain. It is not simply a story of environmental degradation or hope, but a study in entanglement: of memory and water, of sovereignty and soil, of the future flowing through a past not yet settled.


Discover more