Paul Blackmore was born in Sydney in 1968. After graduating from university he worked as a photographic assistant in Sydney for two years. In 1993 he began travelling across Australia and soon produced a photographic project looking at how Australians relate to the land and each other.
His latest series of photographs are published in a new book, At Water's Edge. Shot over 11 years in 14 countries the work explores the relationship between people and water. Blackmore’s photographs illustrate the unfolding drama of the global water crisis and how it is directly affecting those caught up in it: a billion people without access to clean water, another four billion without an adequate supply. Against this dire backdrop, the work is also a celebration of our primal and spiritual bond with nature’s most important resource.
"For me water is all about connections – it connects us to each other and to our spiritual life. One way or another, we all live up or down stream from each other," says Blackmore.
Blackmore moved to Paris in 1999 and joined Rapho agency. The At Water's Edge project began in 2000, when Blackmore was living in Paris.
In 2003 Blackmore moved back to Sydney. Blackmore’s photo essays and stories have been published in Time, L’Express, Le Monde and Geo and his work is held in a number of private collections and in the public collections of the State Library NSW, Australian Museum and the National Maritime Museum of Australia.
Apart from a small handful of images shot on digital in Australia late last year, the majority of images in At Water's Edge were shot on film.
