Adam Fuss: Water

New York–based, British-born photographer Adam Fuss (born 1961) has been exploring the subject of water for more than 30 years, and is perhaps best known for his life-sized photograms of this essential element.

Fuss is inspired by his personal observation of nature and his reinterpretation of the techniques of early photography. In dialogue with photographic pioneers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Eugène Atget and Anna Atkins, Fuss distills the essence of photography―light interacting with a sensitized surface―to create evocative, startlingly beautiful images of the natural world. Roberta Smith has described Fuss’ style as “breathtaking visual extravagance born of a combination of pure controlled chance and superb control.”

Here, for the first time, is a book dedicated solely to the subject Fuss is most associated with: water. Charting a sophisticated engagement with the interaction of water and light throughout his entire career, Fuss personally selected all the pictures, which appear here in exquisite reproductions. Some of Fuss’ photographs of water are now classics of contemporary photography, such as the swimming snakes, the splashing newborn baby and the studies of concentric circles created by water drops; these are represented in this volume alongside many previously unpublished images.