The étangs of southern France initially interested me as landscapes, but increasingly I found myself looking down rather than across them.

These photographs concentrate on the thin surface where water, light, suspended matter and reflection meet. By removing the horizon and other familiar indicators of distance, their scale becomes uncertain. Water can appear solid; reflection can acquire substance; patches of colour resemble skin, paint or matter whose identity is difficult to establish.

The sequence begins with surfaces that remain recognisably aquatic and moves progressively towards greater ambiguity. It is not intended to describe an ecological process or a particular sequence of events. Instead, I am interested in how little information photography needs before our confidence about what we are looking at begins to shift.

Surface Conditions considers the water’s surface not as a boundary to be looked through, but as a place where appearances are temporarily made and unmade.