You can recognise a Lilli Waters (b. 1983) image for its painterly quality, evoking the Pre-Raphaelites with a macabre, foreboding elements, a rich palette and a sensitive use of light. Her fine art photography explores the human condition, often capturing the female body in haunting, windswept locations. The artist often makes use of translucent fabrics and long hair to obscure the identity of her subjects, suggesting that the image much just be as much a mirror for the viewer, as it is a portrait.
Orpheus (2021) features a series of 10 large-scale photographs that were elaborately constructed underwater using shells, fish, flowers and the female form. The striking objects emerge from a dark waterscape, to create other-worldly ethereal visuals. Flowers emerge out of darkness, reminiscent of the Dutch masterpieces of the 17th century. Floating alongside the blossoms are jewel-like creatures and shells, dramatically shrouded by golden nets and sheets of suffocating cellophane.
Waters explained: “We are living through an age where out lens on the world must constantly shift and refocus as new ideas, crises, social movements and the natural environment rapidly changes. A level of poetic consciousness is required to navigate this new world and at times hopeless landscape. Orpheus was a poet, a prophet and a musician in Greek mythology who at the end of his life worshipped no god but the sun. For these images, I wanted Orpheus to be a woman who is glistening oracle-like, asleep on a dark sandscape. The viewer is invited to embrace their own mortality and energy for change simultaneously. To dare to be one’s own illumination – like a transient point of light in a night sky.”
At first glance, her images depict a romantic ideal of beauty and an equivalence between the fertility of the female body and the landscape. Yet, in the era of ‘Me Too’ and ecological crisis, the artist offers a critical and much-needed female gaze. She portrays the conundrum of simply existing within a woman’s skin – asking vital questions about how to express physical agency and easy in a society that constantly objectifies women and irrevocably wreaks damage on the environment.
Words: Emma Jacob
All images courtesy Lilli Waters.
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