Denisse Ariana Pérez Uses Water as an Equaliser in Her New Photobook Agua

I keep coming back to water scenes. I keep coming back to lakes, rivers and oceans. I like to explore the interaction of people with water. Water can disarm even the most armed of facades. Becoming one with water is not about rushing but rather about flowing. And flowing is the closest thing to being.

I was born on an island. However, I never really had a profound relationship with water until I was an adult. In my childhood, water was there, it existed, it surrounded me, it poured on me softly and fiercely, but it didn’t mean more than just that, another element I learned about in biology class.

As I grew older and moved around the world, water began to speak to me in an almost spiritual way. Water allowed me to connect to the deepest parts of myself and deeper matters beyond the limits of my physical body.

This new dialogue with water took me on an aquatic pilgrimage, from the colder currents of Scandinavia to the pink lakes of Senegal. In these versatile waters, I captured women, men, siblings, people living with albinism and non-binary beings. Agua, my first ever photographic book, is the materialisation of this now (infinite) journey.

You can pre-order Agua through Guest Editions. 10% of profits made from Agua will be donated to Face Africa, bringing clean water and sanitation programs to rural communities across Africa.