I clearly remember the moment this concept crystallized. During one of our long conversations, Daniel shared his frustration about feeling eternally divided between two worlds. “On land I dream of the sea; underwater my body reminds me I’m an intruder,” he said, as he told me about dedicating his life to oceanography, to his travels… and his most incredible experience: five years stationed as a scientist in Antarctica.
That’s when I saw it—this duality wasn’t a limitation, but the very essence of who he is. I proposed capturing that exact threshold where both worlds meet, with his face emerging right at the dividing line of the water.
The red mask was intentional: a visual frame that highlights his eyes as windows between realities. The creative process felt like waiting for hours for the perfect light and the right water conditions. Emerging at the exact right moment.
The photograph doesn’t simply show a diver in the water; it reveals that duality where Daniel truly resides—not entirely of one world or the other, but in that powerful threshold where both converge.
Now this photograph hangs at the entrance of Daniel’s home. It has become not just a decorative piece, but a personal symbol—reminding him that his greatest strength lies precisely in the duality he once considered a limitation.
He came to understand that some organisms don’t just survive at the edges—they evolve specifically to inhabit and thrive in those in-between spaces.
