In 2020, an encounter with a waterfall initiated a series of explorations into the vulnerable materiality of photography and its relationship to time. Clepsydra (2020-) refers to an ancient Egyptian instrument used to measure time by observing a flow of water. Inspired by these water clocks, I developed a decanting process with cyanotype photographic emulsion. The work explores photography as a body vulnerable to time, presenting objects that transform according to the light conditions of their environment. On display, the works play with what is hidden, opaque, and transparent, inviting the viewer to reflect on the ephemeral and the uncontrollable. Thus, the different series of this project expose the beauty of a fluctuating world, fossilized into an object, a human resistance to a world in constant change.

Juan Couder (1998) is a Spanish studio based artist currently working between Madrid and Paris. He completed his MA in Photography at Aalto University, and his work has been presented internationally. Couderʼs practice challenges contemporary expectations on permanence, positioning his work in a field of expanded photography.