STATEMENT

I live on an island, always surrounded by water. Water is at the beginning of all things. In Hawaiian thinking, water gives life. Water is always in motion; it is never the same from one instant to the next. The place by the water that we call a beach is a stage for human activity. Water and light are the fuel that power our existence, but a lack of water has a more immediate impact than does an overabundance of darkness, for humans can only survive three days without water. It is a resource that we must not take for granted. Water never really belongs to any one of us. When I look at water, rather than an object, water becomes a form — of consciousness, or time, of physicality, of the human condition, of anything I project on it. For this ongoing series of images, I encased my iPhone 5 in a waterproof housing and took it into the ocean with me. I put water on the little shelf that sits atop the lens in the case, and photographed through that, allowing the water to show me what it sees, rather than how I see it.