The series In the Light of Water takes as its point of departure scenes that reveal an interplay of light, wind, current and water. They are reminders of impermanence and of the potential for finding beauty in the natural world that exists around us if only we were to look.

 

Water provides myriad opportunities for visual wonder. And if water is the subject of this series, it is also, in a very real sense, the medium. My particular interest in this project is the exploitation of the aesthetic possibilities contained in the varied ways in which water presents itself and to create images that are essentially found abstractions. Ephemeral and transient, intentionally decontextualized, these seemingly abstract compositions capture unexpected and striking colors, textures and patterns that are typically unobserved or hidden from view.  Many scenes tend to be strongly monochromatic with subtle variations of the dominant color. In the instant of capture, the scene momentarily becomes both subject and medium.

 

I work with moments captured from a variety of locations – streams, rivers, lakes, marshes, the sea - though the locations are not particularly striking or interesting in themselves. I use the photographs to create images that are derived either by the selective framing or by extracting hidden detail from within the original photograph. The resulting excerpts are nevertheless largely unaltered from the original scene. In some cases, distracting artifacts are digitally removed to enhance the ambiguity of the final image while still retaining discernible references to the subject.