Floral Vanitas Aqueous Still

The Vanitas series is photographed entirely underwater, where light, reflection, and refraction soften form and disrupt fixed edges. Water becomes an active agent within the composition, tempering surfaces and allowing contours to hover between definition and dissolution.

Working within a restrained, low-light palette, subtle currents articulate luminous borders and gentle shadow. Floral elements drift within this environment, suspended in a state of quiet tension as textures emerge, recede, and re-form through the movement of water and time.

Historically rooted in the Vanitas tradition of still life, these works extend that lineage into an aquatic space, where impermanence is not symbolised but physically enacted. The underwater setting slows perception, transforming the familiar language of memento mori into a study of transience, fragility, and temporal flow.

Each image functions as a measured observation rather than a constructed tableau: light passing through water, form briefly held, then altered. The resulting compositions exist between presence and disappearance, offering a contemporary reflection on mortality, beauty, and the passage of time.

Produced entirely in-camera, the Vanitas works form a core body within The Legacy Collection, operating both as independent visual studies and as archival records of an ongoing exploration into light, matter, and impermanence.

All images in this series are available as rights-managed works for editorial, institutional, and creative use.