Notes on Water

What began as parallel practices evolved into a collaboration. Both artists had long been drawn to water as a subject, each developing their own visual language through years of independent work. Through ongoing conversations, about process, perception, and the subtle ways water shapes experience, the idea for a joint body of work gradually took form.

The result is Notes on Water, a small, intimate photobook bringing together around 50 images selected from a much larger archive. The photographs trace fleeting moments: the ebb and flow of tides, shifting light across a surface, the tension between stillness and movement. Together, they form an evocation of water’s elemental nature, at once grounding and elusive.

Cooke describes the work simply: “Lost in water, willingly….”

For de Grunwald, the relationship is both visual and physical. Her practice extends beyond photography into tactile intervention, stitching directly into the photographic surface. “Looking into the stillness of the pools,” she writes, “to the reflections of trees, sky and clouds, I grasp at a sense of connection to myself, and to something greater beyond.” Her sewn threads puncture and repair the image simultaneously, introducing a delicate tension between control and surrender, damage and healing.

The collaboration resonates with a long tradition of artists and writers drawn to water’s philosophical depth. As Hermann Hesse observed, “They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water but the voice of Life, the voice of Being, the voice of Becoming.” Similarly, Kahlil Gibran reminds us that “in one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”

Published by Piper Press & Tin Dam and designed by Dominic Brookman of Kenosha Design, Notes on Water is a limited edition of 300 copies, printed in England.

Katya de Grunwald is a contributor to Millennium Images.