Peter Waters, Borne of Water (PEOPLE 2022)

These photos are from an ongoing series, Empyrean. Becoming an iceberger and bathing in Nairm at dawn has become a daily ritual of baptism and rebirth. It’s a tangent to the ellipse of daily life. Pressures, responsibilities and anxieties are swept away by the immediacy of the cold needles on our skin, the salty air in our lungs and the heavens above, glowing with moon crest, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. High on endorphins, we become weightless, floating in a black ether, weaving trails of bioluminescence. Each image is a non-composite, single frame depicting our iceberger family. Surface ripples reflect and multiply a midday sun. Black and white conversion abstracts the water, turning it into the black ether of dawn. Taken from Lagoon Pier in the waters of Nairm, the native Boonwurrung name for Port Phillip Bay, Dec’21-present. Image titles/descriptions Ascendance - Sean McGrath, a dancer, finds creative freedom in the weightlessness of swimming wild. Loss - Alli Browning, an author, mourns the untimely loss of a dear friend. Rebirth - For Natasha Herbert, an actor, starting the day swimming wild is a ritual of rebirth. The birth of Venus - Fabien and Melanie, inspired by the Botticelli painting

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.